THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 

From  the  collection  of 
Julius  Doerner,  Chicago 
Purchased,  1918. 

551 


I 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2015 


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FOOT-PRINTS  OF  THE  CREATOR; 

 on  

THE  AS  TEE  OLE  PIS  OF  STROMNESS. 

BY  HUGH  MILLER. 

WITH    MANY  ILLUSTRATIONS. 
FROM   THE    THIRD    LONDON  E  D  I T I  O  N. — W I  T  II   A    MEMOIR   OF    THE  AUTHOR 

BY  LOUIS  AGASSIZ. 

"In  its  purely  geological  character,  the  'Foot-prints'  is  not  surpassed  by  any  modern 
work  of  the  same  class.  In  this  volume,  Mr.  Miller  discusses  the  development  hypothesis, 
or  the  hypothesis  of  natural  law,  as  maintained  by  Lamarck,  and  by  the  author  of  the 
'Vestiges  of  Creation,1  and  has  subjected  it,  in  its  geological  aspect,  to  the  most  rigorous 
examination.  He  lias  stripped  even  of  its  semblance  of  truth,  and  restored  to  the  Creator, 
as  governor  of  the  universe,  that  power  and  those  functions  which  he  was  supposed  to  have 
resigned  at  its  birth.  *  *  *  The  earth  has  still  to  surrender  mighty  secrets,  — and  great  rev- 
elations are  yet  to  issue  from  sepulchres  of  stone.  It  is  from  the  vaults  to  which  ancient 
life  has  been  consigned  that  the  history  of  the  dawn  of  life  is  to  be  composed."— North 
British  Review. 

"  Scientific  knowledge  equally  remarkable  for  comprehensiveness  and  accuracy;  a  style 
at  all  times  singularly  clear,  vivid,  and  powerful,  ranging  at  will,  and  without  effort,  from 
the  most  natural  and  graceful  simplicity,  through  the  playful,  the  graphic,  and  the  vigor- 
ous, to  the  impressive  eloquence  of  great  thoughts  greatly  expressed;  reasoning  at  once 
comprehensive  in  scope,  strong  in  grasp,  and  pointedly  direct  in  application,  — these  qual- 
ities combine  to  render  the  '  Foot-prints  '  one  of  the  most  perfect  refutations  of  error,  and 
defences  of  truth,  that  ever  exact  science  has  produced."—  Free  Church  Magazine. 

Dr.  Buckland,  at  a  meeting  of  the  British  Association,  said  he  had  never  been  so  much 
astonished  in  his  life,  by  the  powers  of  any  man.  as  he  had  been  by  the  geological  descriptions 
of  Mr.  Miller.  That  wonderful  man  described  these  objects  with  a  facility  which  made  him 
ashamed  of  the  comparative  meagreness  and  poverty  of  his  own  descriptions  in  the  "  Bridge- 
water  Treatise,"  which  had  cost  him  hours  and  days  of  labor.  He  would  give  his  left  hand 
to  possess  such  powers  of  description  as  this  man;  and  if  it  pleased  Providence  to  spare  his 
useful  life,  he,  if  any  one,  would  certainly  render  science  attractive  and  popular,  and  do 
equal  service  to  theology  and  geology. 

"  The  style  of  this  work  is  most  singularly  clear  and  vivid,  rising  at  times  to  eloquence, 
and  always  impressing  the  reader  with  the  idea  that  he  is  brought  in  contact  with  great 
thoughts^  Where  it  is  necessary,  there  are  engravings  to  illustrate  the  geological  remains. 
The  whole  work  forms  one  of  the  best  defences  of  Truth  that  science  can  produce. ' ' — Albany 
State  Register. 

"The  '  Foot-Prints  of  the  Creator'  is  not  only  a  good  but  a  great  book.  All  who  have 
read  the  'Vestiges  of  Creation'  should  study  the  '  Foot-Prints  of  the  Creator.'  This  vol- 
ume is  especially  worthy  the  attention  of  those  who  ai*e  so  fearful  of  the  skeptical  tenden- 
cies of  natural  science.  We  expect  this  volume  will  meet  with  a  very  extensive  sale.  It 
should  be  placed  in  every  Sabbath  School  Library,  and  at  every  Christian  fireside."—  Boston 
Traveller. 

" Mr.  Miller's  style  is  remarkably  pleasing;  his  mode  of  popularising  geological  knowl- 
edge unsurpassed,  perhaps  unequalled ;  and  the  deep  vein  of  reverence  for  Divine  Revela- 
tion pervading  all,  adds  interest  and  value  to  the  volume." — New  York  Com.  Advertiser. 

"The  publishers  have  again  covered  themselves  with  honor,  by  giving  to  the  American 
public,  with  the  Author's  permission,  an  elegant  reprint  of  a  foreign  work  of  science. 
We  earnestly  bespeak  for  this  work  a  wide  and  free  circulation,  among  all  who  love  science 
much  and  religion  more."— Puritan  Recorder. 

"  The  book  indicates  a  mind  of  rare  gifts  and  attainments,  and  exhibits  the  workings  of 
poetic  genius  in  admirable  harmony  with  the  generalizations  of  philosophv.  It  is,  withal 
pervaded  by  a  spirit  of  devout  reverence  and  child-like  humility,  such  as  all  men  delight  to 
behold  in  the  interpreter  of  nature.  We  are  persuaded  that  no  intelligent  reader  will  go 
through  the  chapters  of  the  author  without  being  instructed  and  delighted  with  the  views 
they  contain."— Providence  Journal. 

"  Hugh  Miller  is  a  Scotch  geologist,  who,  within  a  few  years,  has  not  only  added  largely 
to  the  facts  of  science,  but  has  stepped  at  once  among  the  leading  scientific  writers  of  the 
age,  by  his  wonderfully  clear,  accurate,  and  elegant  geological  works.  Mr.  Miller,  taking 
the  newly-discovered  Asterolepis  for  his  text,  has  produced  an  answer  to  the  '  Vestiges  of 
Creation,'  a  work  which  has  been  more  widely  circulated,  perhaps,  than  anv  other  profes- 
sedly scientific  book  ever  printed.  Mr.  Miller  (and  there  is  no  doubt  of  this)  completely 
upsets  his  opponent  —  exposing  his  incompetency,  ignorance,  and  sophistrv,  with  a  clear- 
ness, ease,  and  elegance  that  are  both  astonishing  and  delightful.  Throughout  the  entire 
geologic  portion,  the  reasoning  is  markedly  close,  shrewd,  and  intelligible —  the  facts  are 
evidently  at  the  finger's  end  of  the  author  — and  the  most  unwilling,  cautious,  and  antago- 
nistic reader  is  compelled  to  yield  his  thorough  assent  to  the  argument."— Boston  Post. 
GOULD  AND  LINCOLN,  PUBLISHERS,  BOSTON. 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE; 

NEW  WALKS  IN  AN  OLD  FIELD. 

BY  HUGH  MILLEB, 

FROM   THE    FOURTH   LONDON   EDITION  —  ILLUSTRATED 


A  writer,  in  noticing  Mr.  Miller's  "First  Impressions  of  England  and  the  People,"  in 
the  New  Englander,  of  May,  1850,  commences  by  saying,  "We  presume  it  is  not  neces- 
sary formally  to  introduce  Hugh  Miller  to  our  readers ;  the  author  of  '  The  Old  Red  Sand- 
stone' placed  himself,  by  that  production,  which  was  first,  among  the  most  successful 
geologists,  and  the  best  writers  of  the  age.  We  well  remember  with  what  mingled  emotion 
and  delight  we  first  read  that  work.  Rarely  has  a  more  remarkable  book  come  from  the 
press.  .  .  .  For,  besides  the  important  contributions  which  it  makes  to  the  science  of  Geol- 
ogy, it  is  written  in  a  style  which  places  the  author  at  once  among  the  most  accomplished 
writers  of  the  age.  .  .  .  He  proves  himself  to  be  in  prose  what  Burns  has  been  in  poetry. 
We  are  not  extravagant  in  saying  that  there  is  no  geologist  living  who,  in  the  descriptions 
of  the  phenomena  of  the  science,  has  united  such  accuracy  of  statement  with  so  much 
poetic  beauty  of  expression.  What  Dr.  Buckland  said  was  not  a  mere  compliment,  that 
'  he  had  never  been  so  much  astonished  in  his  life,  by  the  powers  of  any  man,  as  he  had 
been  by  the  geological  descriptions  of  Mr.  Miller.  That  wonderful  man  described  these 
objects  with  a  felicity  which  made  him  ashamed  of  the  comparative  meagreness  and  pov- 
erty of  his  own  descriptions,  in  the  Bridgewater  Treatise,  which  had  cost  him  hours  and 
days  of  labor.'  For  our  own  part  we  do  not  hesitate  to  place  Mr.  Miller  in  the  front  rank 
of  English  prose  writers.  Without  mannerism,  without  those  extravagances  which  give  a 
factitious  reputation  to  so  many  writers  of  the  day,  his  style  has  a  classic  purity  and  ele- 
gance, which  remind  one  of  Goldsmith  and  Irving,  while  there  is  an  ease  and  a  naturalness 
in  the  illustrations  of  the  imagination,  which  belong  only  to  men  of  true  genius." 

"The  excellent  and  lively  work  of  our  meritorious,  self-taught  countryman,  Mr.  Miller, 
is  as  admirable  for  the  clearness  of  its  descriptions,  and  the  sweetness  of  its  composition, 
as  for  the  purity  and  gracefulness  which  pervade  it."— Edinburgh  Review. 

"A  geological  work,  small  in  size,  unpretending  in  spirit  and  manner;  its  contents,  the 
conscientious  narration  of  fact;  its  style,  the  beautiful  simplicity  of  truth;  and  altogether 
possessing,  for  a  rational  reader,  an  interest  superior  to  that  of  a  novel."— Dr.  J.  Pye  Smith, 

"  This  admirable  work  evinces  talent  of  the  highest  order,  a  deep  and  healthful  moral 
feeling,  a  perfect  command  of  the  finest  language,  and  a  beautiful  union  of  philosophy  and 
poetry.  No  geologist  can  peruse  this  volume  without  instruction  and  delight." — Silli- 
man's  American  Journal  of  Science. 

"Mr.  Miller's  exceedingly  interesting  book  on  this  formation  is  just  the  sort  of  work  to 
render  any  subject  popular.  It  is  written  in  a  remarkably  pleasing  style,  and  contains  a 
wonderful  amount  of  information."—  Westminster  Review. 

"  In  Mr.  Miller's  charming  little  work  will  be  found  a  very  graphic  description  of  the  Old 
Redfishes.  I  know  not  of  a  more  fascinating  volume  on  any  branch  of  British  geology."— 
MantelVs  Medals  of  Creation. 

Sir  Roderick  Murchison,  giving  an  account  of  the  investigations  of  Mr.  Miller,  spoke 
in  the  highest  terms  of  his  perseverance  and  ingenuity  as  a  geologist.  With  no  other  advan 
tages  than  a  common  education,  by  a  careful  use  of  his  means,  he  had  been  able  to  give 
himself  an  excellent  education,  and  to  elevate  himself  to  a  position  which  any  man,  in  any 
sphere  of  life,  might  well  envy.  He  had  seen  some  of  his  papers  on  geology,  written  in  a 
style  so  beautiful  and  poetical  as  to  throw  plain  geologists,  like  himself,  in  the  shade. 

GOULD  AND  LINCOLN,  PUBLISHERS.  BOSTON. 


LIBRARY 
OF  THE 


■ot/(tt< 


S 


Gitei 


I 


THE 


OLD  RED  SANDSTONE; 


OR, 


NEW  WALKS  IN  AN  OLD  FIELD. 


HUGH  MILLER, 

AUTHOR   OF    "FOOT-PRINTS    OF    THE    CREATOR,7'  ETC. 


ILLUSTRATED    WITH    NUMEROUS  ENGRAVINGS. 


FROM  THE  FOURTH  LONDON  EDITION. 


BOSTON: 
GOULD     AND  LINCOLN, 

5  9   WASHINGTON  STREET. 

1851  . 


STE11E0TYPED  AT  THE  BOSTON  STEREOTYPE  FOUNDRY. 


Printed  by  G.  C.  Rand  &  Co.  No.  3  Conihill. 


* 


1  <S&\ 


id 


TO 


RODERICK  IMPEY  MURCHISON,  Esq.,  F.  R.  S.,  Etc., 


In  the  autumn  of  last  year,  I  sat  down  to  write  a  few  geo- 
logical sketches  for  a  newspaper ;  the  accumulated  facts  of 
twenty  years  crowded  upon  me  as  I  wrote,  and  the  few 
sketches  have  expanded  into  a  volume.  Permit  me,  honored 
Sir,  to  dedicate  this  volume  to  you.  Its  imperfections  are 
doubtless  many,  for  it  has  been  produced  under  many  disadvan- 
tages ;  but  it  is  not  the  men  best  qualified  to  decide  regarding  it 
whose  criticisms  I  fear  most ;  and  I  am  especially  desirous  to 
bring  it  under  your  notice,  as  of  all  geologists  the  most  thor- 
oughly acquainted  with  those  ancient  formations  which  it  pro- 
fesses partially  to  describe.  I  am,  besides,  desirous  it  should 
be  known,  and  this,  I  trust,  from  other  motives  than  those  of 
vanity,  that,  when  prosecuting  my  humble  researches  in  ob- 
scurity and  solitude,  the  present  President  of  the  Geological 
Society  did  not  deem  it  beneath  him  to  evince  an  interest  in 
the  results  to  which  they  led,  and  to  encourage  and  assist  the 
inquirer  with  his  advice.  Accept,  honored  Sir,  my  sincere 
thanks  for  your  kindness. 

Smith,  the  father  of  English  Geology,  loved  to  remark  that 
he  had  been  born  upon  the  Oolite  —  the  formation  whose 
various  deposits  he  was  the  first  to  distinguish  and  describe, 
and  from  which,  as  from  the  meridian  line  of  the  geographer, 
the  geological  scale  has  been  graduated  on  both  sides.  I 


PRESIDENT  OP  THE  GEOLOGICAL  SOCIETY. 


a 


673992 


VI 


DEDICATION. 


have  thought  of  the  circumstance  when,  on  visiting  in  my 
native  district  the  birthplace  of  the  author  of  the  Silurian 
System,  I  found  it  situated  among  the  more  ancient  fossilifer- 
ous  rocks  of  the  north  of  Scotland  —  the  Lower  Formation 
of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  spreading  out  beneath  and  around 
it,  and  the  first-formed  deposit  of  the  system,  the  Great  Con- 
glomerate, rising  high  on  the  neighboring  hills.  It  is  unques- 
tionably no  slight  advantage  to  be  placed,  at  that  early  stage 
of  life,  when  the  mind  collects  its  facts  with  greatest  avidity, 
and  the  curiosity  is  most  active,  in  localities  where  there  is 
much  to  attract  observation  that  has  escaped  the  notice  of 
others.  Like  the  gentleman  whom  I  have  now  the  honor  of 
addressing,  I  too  was  born  on  the  Old  Red  Sandstone,  and 
first  broke  ground  as  an  inquirer  into  geological  fact  in  a  for- 
mation scarce  at  all  known  to  the  geologist,  and  in  which 
there  still  remains  much  for  future  discoverers  to  examine 
and  describe.  Hence  an  acquaintance,  I  am  afraid  all  too 
slight,  with  phenomena*  which,  if  intrinsically  of  interest,  may 
be  found  to  have  also  the  interest  of  novelty  to  recommend 
them,  and  with  organisms  which,  though  among  the  most  an- 
cient of  things  in  their  relation  to  the  world's  history,  will  be 
pronounced  new  by  the  geological  reader  in  their  relation  to 
human  knowledge.  Hence,  too,  my  present  opportunity  of 
subscribing  myself,  as  the  writer  of  a  volume  on  the  Old 
Red  Sandstone, 

Honored  Sir, 

With  sincere  gratitude  and  respect, 

Your  obedient  humble  Servant, 

HUGH  MILLER. 

Edinburgh,  May  I,  1841. 


PREFACE. 


Nearly  one  third  of  the  present  volume  appeared  a  few 
months  ago  in  the  form  of  a  series  of  sketches  in  the  Wit- 
ness newspaper.  A  portion  of  the  first  chapter  was  submitted 
to  the  public  a  year  or  two  earlier,  in  Chambers's  Edinburgh 
Journal.  The  rest,  amounting  to  about  two  thirds  of  the 
whole,  appears  for  the  first  time. 

Every  such  work  has  its  defects.  The  faults  of  the  pres- 
ent volume  —  faults  all  too  obvious,  I  am  afraid  —  would  have 
been  probably  fewer  had  the  writer  enjoyed  greater  leisure. 
Some  of  them,  however,  seem  scarce  separable  from  the  na- 
ture of  the  subject :  there  are  others  for  which,  from  their 
opposite  character,  I  shall  have  to  apologize  in  turn  to  oppo- 
site classes  of  readers.  My  facts  would,  in  most  instances, 
have  lain  closer  had  I  written  for  geologists  exclusively,  and 
there  would  have  been  less  reference  to  familiar  phenomena. 
And  had  I  written  for  only  general  readers,  my  descriptions 
of  hitherto  undescribed  organisms,  and  the  deposits  of  little- 


viii 


PREFACE. 


known  localities,  would  have  occupied  fewer  pages,  and 
would  have  been  thrown  off  with,  perhaps,  less  regard  to 
minute  detail  than  to  pictorial  effect.  May  I  crave,  while  ad- 
dressing myself,  now  to  the  one  class,  and  now  to  the  other, 
the  alternate  forbearance  of  each  ? 

Such  is  the  state  of  progression  in  geological  science,  that 
the  geologist  who  stands  still  for  but  a  very  little,  must  be 
content  to  find  himself  left  behind.  Nay,  so  rapid  is  the  prog- 
ress, that  scarce  a  geological  work  passes  through  the  press 
in  which  some  of  the  statements  of  the  earlier  pages  have 
not  to  be  modified,  restricted,  or  extended  in  the  concluding 
ones.  The  present  volume  shares,  in  this  respect,  in  what 
seems  the  common  lot.  In  describing  the  Coccosteus,  the 
reader  will  find  it  stated  that  the  creature,  unlike  its  contem- 
porary the  Pterichthys,  was  unfurnished  with  arms.  Ere 
arriving  at  such  a  conclusion,  I  had  carefully  examined  at 
least  a  hundred  different  Coccostei  ;  but  the  positive  evidence 
of  one  specimen  outweighs  the  negative  evidence  of  a  hun- 
dred ;  and  I  have  just  learned  from  a  friend  in  the  north, 
(Mr.  Patrick  Duff,  of  Elgin,)  that  a  Coccosteus  lately  found  at 
Lethen-bar,  and  now  in  the  possession  of  Lady  Gordon 
Gumming,  of  Altyre,  is  furnished  with  what  seem  uncouth, 
paddle-shaped  arms,  that  project  from  the  head.*    All  that  I 


*  As  these  paddle-shaped  arms  have  not  been  introduced  by  Agas- 
siz  into  his  restoration  of  the  Coccosteus ,  their  existence,  at  least  as 
arms,  must  still  be  regarded  as  problematical.    There  can  be  no  doubt, 


PREFACE. 


be 


have  given  of  the  creature,  however,  will  be  found  true  to  the 
actual  type  ;  and  that  parts  should  have  been  omitted  will 
surprise  no  one  who  remembers  that  many  hundred  belem- 
nites  had  been  figured  and  described  ere  a  specimen  turned 
up  in  which  the  horny  prolongation,  with  its  enclosed  ink-bag, 
was  found  attached  to  the  calcareous  spindle  ;  and  that  even 
yet,  after  many  thousand  trilobites  have  been  carefully  exam- 
ined, it  remains  a  question  with  the  ory otologist,  whether  this 
crustacean  of  the  earliest  periods  was  furnished  with  legs,  or 
creeped  on  an  abdominal  foot,  like  the  snail. 

I  owe  to  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Robertson,  Inverugie,  the 
specimen  figured  in  Plate  V.,  fig.  7,  containing  shells  of  the 
only  species  yet  discovered  in  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  of 
Scotland.  They  occur  in  the  Lower  Formation  of  the  system, 
in  a  quany  near  Kirkwald,  in  which  the  specimen  figured, 
with  several  others  of  the  same  kind,  was  found  by  Mr. 
Robertson,  in  the  year  1834.  In  referring  to  this  shell,  page 
99,*  I  have  spoken  of  it  as  a  delicate  bivalve,  much  resem- 
bling a  Venus  ;  drawing  my  illustration,  naturally  enough, 
when  describing  the  shell  of  an  ocean  deposit,  rather  from 
among  marine,  than  fluviatile  testacea.  I  have  since  submit- 
ted it  to  Mr.  Murchison,  who  has  obligingly  written  me  that 
he  "  can  find  no  one  to  say  more  regarding  it  than  that  it  is 


however,  that  they  existed  as  plates  of  very  peculiar  form,  and  greatly 
resembling  paddles,  and  that  they  served  in  the  economy  of  the  animal 
some  still  unaccounted  for  purpose. 
*  Page  90  of  the  present  edition. 


X 


PREFACE. 


very  like  a  Cyclase  He  adds,  however,  that  it  must  be  an 
ocean  production  notwithstanding,  seeing  that  all  its  contem- 
poraries in  England,  Scotland,  and  Russia,  whether  shells  or 
fish,  are  unequivocally  marine. 

"With  the  exception  of  two  of  the  figures  in  Plate  IX.,  the 
figures  of  the  Cephalaspis  and  the  Holoptychius,  and  one  of 
the  sections  in  the  Frontispiece,  section  2,  all  the  prints  of 
the  volume  are  originals.  To  Mr.  Daniel  Alexander,  of  Ed- 
inburgh, —  a  gentleman,  who  to  the  skill  and  taste  of  the 
superior  artist,  adds  no  small  portion  of  the  knowledge  of  the 
practical  geologist,  —  I  am  indebted  for  several  of  the  draw- 
ings ;  that  of  fig.  2  in  Plate  V.,  fig.  1  in  Plate  VI.,  fig.  2  in 
Plate  VIII.,  and  figs.  3  and  4  in  plate  IX.  I  am  indebted  to 
another  friend  for  fig.  1,  in  Plate  VII.  Whatever  defects  may 
be  discovered  in  any  of  the  others,  must  be  attributed  to  the 
untaught  efforts  of  the  writer,  all  unfamiliar,  hitherto,  with  the 
pencil,  and  with  by  much  too  little  leisure  to  acquaint  himself 
with  it  now. 


AMERICAN  PUBLISHERS'  NOTICE. 


The  publishers  take  pleasure  in  presenting  to  the  Amer- 
ican reader  this  interesting  work  of  Hugh  Miller,  in  which  are 
restored  to  our  view  some  of  the  phenomena  which  occurred 
in  the  earlier  formations  of  the  crust  of  the  earth,  belonging 
to  those  inconceivably  remote  ages  when  living  things  first 
appeared  ;  —  a  work  so  scientific,  and  yet  so  illustrated  with 
familiar  objects  and  scenes,  as  to  be  well  understood  by  those 
little  versed  in  Geology.  The  grand  conclusions  which  the 
author  deduces  from  apparently  trifling  circumstances  that 
every  one  has  noticed  a  hundred  times,  without  being  the 
wiser,  illustrate  the  difference  between  the  philosopher  and 
the  common  observer ;  and  the  simple  and  pictorial  style  in 
which  they  are  delineated  renders  the  work  peculiarly  fas- 
cinating. 

This  is  a  reprint  of  the  fourth  English  edition,  without  addi- 
tions or  alterations,  excepting  the  omission  of  the  prefatory 
Notes  to  the  second  and  third  editions.  In  the  first  of  these, 
the  author  states  that  he  had  added  about  fifteen  pages  to  the 
first  edition,  chiefly  relating  to  that  middle  formation  of  the 
system  to  which  the  organisms  of  Balruddery  and  Carmylie 
belong,  the  representative  of  the  Cornstones  in  England. 
Some  matters  there  given  as  merely  conjectural  were  also 


xii 


AMERICAN  PUBLISHER'S  NOTICE. 


replaced  by  ascertained  facts.  In  the  latter,  he  announces 
that  the  somewhat  bold  prediction  made  by  him  in  the  first 
edition,  in  1841,  that  the  ichthyolites  of  the  Old  Red  Sand- 
stone would  be  found  at  least  equal  to  those  of  all  the  geo- 
logical formations  united,  at  the  death  of  Cuvier,  was  already 
more  than  fulfilled.  Cuvier  enumerated  ninety-two  species 
of  fossil  fishes  ;  Agassiz,  in  1846,  enumerated  one  hundred 
and  five  in  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  alone,  a  formation  which 
had  been  regarded  as  poorer  in  organisms  than  any  other. 
In  this  edition  was  given  the  list  of  species,  as  determined 
and  arranged  by  Professor  Agassiz.  Many  additions  in  the 
shape  of  notes  were  also  made. 

In  the  first  two  editions  it  was  stated  that  there  was  a  grad- 
ual increase  of  size  observable  in  the  progress  of  ichthyolic 
life,  and  that  the  Old  Red  System  exhibited,  in  its  succes- 
sive formations,  this  gradation  of  bulk,  beginning  with  an  age 
of  dwarfs,  and  ending  with  an  age  of  giants.  Since  then,  it 
has  been  ascertained  that  there  were  giants  among  the  dwarfs. 
The  remains  of  one  of  the  largest  fish  found  any  where,  has 
been  discovered  in  its  lowest  formation  ;  whereby  he  was 
convinced  that  the  theory  of  a  gradual  progression  in  size, 
from  the  earlier  to  the  later  Palasozoic  formations,  though 
based  originally  on  no  inconsiderable  amount  of  negative 
evidence,  must  be  permitted  to  drop.  On  this  fact  he  has 
based  his  incontrovertible  argument  against  the  "  develop- 
ment theory  "  in  his  more  recent  work,  already  given  to  the 
American  Public,  u  Foot-Prints  of  the  Creator." 


Boston,  January,  1851. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAGE 

The  "Working-man's  true  Policy.  —  His  only  Mode  of  acquiring 
Power.  —  The  Exercise  of  the  Faculties  essential  to  Enjoy- 
ment. —  No  necessary  Connection  between  Labor  and  Unhap- 
piness.  —  Narrative. — Scenes  in  a  Quarry.  —  The  two  dead 
Birds.  —  Landscape.  —  Ripple  Markings  on  a  Sandstone  Slab. 

—  Boulder  Stones.  —  Inferences  derived  from  their  water- worn 
Appearance.  —  Sea-coast  Section.  — My  first  discovered  Fossil. 

—  Lias  Deposit  on  the  Shores  of  the  Moray  Frith.  —  Belem- 
nite.  —  Result  of  the  Experience  of  half  a  Lifetime  of  Toil.  — 
Advantages  of  a  Wandering  Profession  in  Connection  with 
the  Geology  of  a  Country.  —  Geological  Opportunities  of  the 
Stone-Mason.  —  Design  of  the  present  Work.  .       .  1-14 

CHAPTER  11. 

The  Old  Red  Sandstone.  —  Till  very  lately  its  Existence  as  a  dis- 
tinct Formation  disputed.  —  Still  little  known.  —  Its  great 
Importance  in   the  Geological   Scale.  —  Illustration.  —  The 
b 


XIV  CONTENTS. 


North  of  Scotland  girdled  by  an  immense  Belt  of  Old  Red 
Sandstone.  —  Line  of  the  Girdle  along  the  Coast.  —  Marks  of 
vast  Denudation.  —  Its  Extent  partially  indicated  by  Hills  on 
the  western  Coast  of  Hoss- shire.  —  The  System  of  great 
Depth  in  the  North  of  Scotland.  —  Difficulties  in  the  Way  of 
estimating  the  Thickness  of  Deposits.  —  Peculiar  Formation 
of  Hill.  —  Illustrated  by  Ben  Nevis.  —  Caution  to  the  Geologi- 
cal Critic.  —  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone  immensely  developed 
in  Caithness.  —  Sketch  of  the  Geology  of  that  County.  —  Its 
strange  Group  of  Fossils. — their  present  Place  of  Sepulture. 
—  Their  ancient  Habitat.  —  Agassiz.  —  Amazing  Progress  of 
Fossil  Ichthyology  during  the  last  few  Years.  —  Its  Nomen- 
clature. —  Learned  Names  repel  unlearned  Readers.  —  Not  a 
great  deal  in  them,  15-34 


CHAPTER  III. 

Lamarck's  Theory  of  Progression  illustrated.  —  Class  of  Facts  » 
which  give  Color  to  it.  —  The  Credulity  of  Unbelief.  —  M. 
Maillet  and  his  Fish-birds.  —  Gradation  not  Progress.  —  Geo- 
logical Argument.  —  The  Present  incomplete  without  the 
Past.  —  Intermediate  Links  of  Creation.  —  Organisms  of  the 
Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone.  —  The  Pterichthys.  —  Its  first  Dis- 
covery. —  Mr.  Murchison's  Decision  regarding  it.  —  Confirmed 
by  that  of  Agassiz.  —  Description.  —  The  several  Varieties 
of  the  Fossil  yet  discovered.  —  Evidence  of  violent  Death 
in  the  Attitudes  in  which  they  are  found.  —  The  Coccosteus 
of  the  Lower  Old  Red.  —  Description.  —  Gradations  from 
Crustacea  to  Fishes.  —  Habits  of  the  Coccosteus.  —  Scarcely 
any  Conception  too  extravagant  for  Nature  to  realize,     .  35-54 


CONTENTS.  XV 

CHAPTER  IV. 

PAGE 

The  Elfin-fish  of  Gawin  Douglas.  —  The  Fish  of  the  Old  Red 
Sandstone  scarcely  less  curious.  —  Place  which  they  occu- 
pied indicated  in  the  present  Creation  by  a  mere  Gap.  —  Fish 
divided  into  two  great  Series,  the  Osseous  and  Cartilagi- 
nous. —  Their  distinctive  Peculiarities.  —  Geological  Illustra- 
tion of  Dr.  Johnson's  shrewd  Objection  to  the  Theory  of 
Soame  Jenyns.  —  Proofs  of  the  intermediate  Character  of  the 
Ichthyolites  of  the  Old  lied  Sandstone.  —  Appearances  which 
first  led  the  Writer  to  deem  it  intermediate.  —  Confirmation 
by  Agassiz.  —  The  Osteolepis.  —  Order  to  which,  this  Ichthy- 
olite  belonged.  —  Description.  —  Dipterus.  —  Diplopierus.  — 
Chcirolepis.  —  Glyptolepis,        ......  55-78 

CHAPTER  V. 

The  Classifying  Principle  and  its  Uses.  —  Three  Groups  of  Ich- 
thyolites among  the  Organisms  of  the  Lower  Old  Ked  Sand- 
stone. —  Peculiarities  of  the  Third  Group.  —  Its  Varieties.  — 
Description  of  the  Cheir  acanthus.  —  Of  two  unnamed  Fossils 
of  the  same  Order. — Microscopic  Beauty  of  these  ancient 
Fish.  —  Various  Styles  of  Ornament  which  obtain  among 
them.  —  The  Molluscs  of  the  Formation.  —  Remarkable  chief- 
ly for  the  Union  of  modern  with  ancient  Forms  which  they 
exhibit.  —  Its  Vegetables.  —  Importance  and  Interest  of  the 
Record  which  it  furnishes,  79-94 

CHAPTER  VI. 
The  Lines  of  the  Geographer  rarely  right  Lines.  —  These  last, 


xvi 


CONTENTS. 


however,  always  worth  looking  at  when  they  occur.  —  Strik- 
ing Instance  in  the  Line  of  the  Great  Caledonian  Val- 
ley. —  Indicative  of  the  Direction  in  which  the  Volcanic 
Agencies  have  operated.  —  Sections  of  the  Old  Red  Sand- 
stone furnished  by  the  granitic  Eminences  of  the  Line.  — 
Illustration.  —  Lias  of  the  Moray  Frith.  —  Surmisings  regard- 
ing its  original  Extent.  —  These  lead  to  an  exploratory  Ram- 
ble. —  Narrative.  —  Phenomena  exhibited  in  the  Course  of 
half  an  Hour's  Walk.  —  The  little  Bay.  —  Its  Strata  and  their 
Organisms,  95-108 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Further  Discoveries  of  the  Ichthyolite  Beds.  —  Found  in  one 
Locality  under  a  Bed  of  Peat.  —  Discovered  in  another  be- 
neath an  ancient  Burying- ground.  —  In  a  third  underlying 
the  Lias  Formation.  —  In  a  fourth  overtopped  by  a  still 
older  Sandstone  Deposit.  —  Difficulties  in  ascertaining  the 
true  Place  of  a  newly- discovered  Formation.  —  Caution 
against  drawing  too  hasty  Inferences  from  the  mere  Circum- 
stance of  Neighborhood.  —  The  Writer  receives  his  first 
Assistance  from  without.  —  Geological  Appendix  of  the  Messrs. 
Anderson,  of  Inverness.  —  Further  Assistance  from  the  Re- 
searches of  Agassiz.  —  Suggestion. — Dr.  John  Malcoimson. 
—  His  extensive  Discoveries  in  Moray.  —  He  submits  to 
Agassiz  a  Drawing  of  the  Pterlchlhys.  —  Place  of  the  Ich- 
thyolites  in  the  Scale  at  length  determined.  —  Two  distinct 
Platforms  of  Being  in  the  Formation  to  which  they  be- 
long,   109-124 


CONTENTS. 


xvii 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

PAGE 

Upper  Formations  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone.  —  R,oom  enough, 
for  each  and  to  spare.  —  Middle,  or  Cornstone  Formation.  — 
The  Cephalaspis  its  most  characteristic  Organism.  —  Descrip- 
tion. —  The  Den  of  Balruddery  richer  in  the  Fossils  of  this 
middle  Formation  than  any  other  Locality  yet  discovered.  — 
Various  Contemporaries  of  the  Cephalaspis.  —  Vegetable  Im- 
pressions. —  Gigantic  Crustacean.  —  Seraphim.  —  Ichthyodo- 
rulites.  —  Sketch  of  the  Geology  of  Forfarshire.  —  Its  older 
Deposits  of  the  Cornstone  Formation.  —  The  Quarries  of 
Carmylie.  — -  Their  Vegetable  and  Animal  Remains.  —  The  Up- 
per Formation.  —  Wide  Extent  of  the  Fauna  and  Flora  of  the 
earlier  Formations. — Probable  Cause,        .       .       .  125-150 


CHAPTER  IX. 

Fossils  of  the  Upper  Old  Red  Sandstone  much  more  imperfect- 
ly preserved  than  those  of  the  Lower.  —  The  Causes  obvious. 
—  Difference  between  the  two  Groups,  which  first  strikes  the 
Observer,  a  difference  in  size.  —  The  Boloptychius  a  character- 
istic Ichthyolite  of  the  Formation.  —  Description  of  its  huge 
Scales.  —  Of  its  Occipital  Bones,  Fins,  Teeth,  and  general  Ap- 
pearance. —  Contemporaries  of  the  Holoplycldus.  —  Sponge-like 
Bodies.  —  Plates  resembling  those  of  the  Sturgeon.  —  Teeth  of 
various  forms,  but  all  evidently  the  teeth  of  fishes.  — Lime- 
stone Band  and  its  probable  Origin.  —  Fossils  of  the  Yellow 
Sandstone.  —  the  PtericMhys  of  Dura  Den.  —  Member  of  a  Fam- 


CONTENTS. 


ily  peculiarly  characteristic  of  the  System.  —  No  intervening 
Formation  between  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  and  the  Coal  Meas- 
ures.—  The  Holoptychius  contemporary  for  a  time  with  the 
Megalichthys,  —  The  Columns  of  Tubal- Cain,      .       .  151-172 


CHAPTER  X. 

Speculations  in  the  Old  Red  Sandstone,  and  their  Character.  — 
George,  first  Earl  of  Cromarty.  —  His  Sagacity  as  a  Naturalist 
at  fault  in  one  instance.  —  Sets  himself  to  dig  for  Coal  in  the 
Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone.  —  Discovers  a  fine  Artesian  Well. 

—  Yalue  of  Geological  Knowledge  in  an  economic  view.  — 
Scarce  a  Secondary  Formation  in  the  Kingdom  in  which  Coal 
has  not  been  sought  for.  —  Mineral  Springs  of  the  Old  Red 
Sandstone.  —  Strathpeffer.  —  Its  Peculiarities  whence  derived. 

—  Chalybeate  Springs  of  Easter  Ross  and  the  Black  Isle.  — 
Petrifying  Springs.  —  Building-Stone  and  Lime  of  the  Old 
Red  Sandstone.  —  Its  various  Soils,       ....  173-189 


CHAPTER  XI. 

Geological  Physiognomy.  —  Scenery  of  the  Primary  Formations  ; 
Gneiss,  Mica  Schist,  Quartz  Rock.  —  Of  the  Secondary  ;  the 
Chalk  Formations,  the  Oolite,  the  New  Red  Sandstone,  the 
Coal  Measures.  —  Scenery  in  the  Neighborhood  of  Edinburgh. 
—  Aspect  of  the  Trap  Rocks.  —  The  Disturbing  and  Denuding 
Agencies.  —  Distinctive  Features  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone.  — 
Of  the  Great  Conglomerate.  —  Of  the  Ichthyolite  Beds.  —  The 


CONTENTS. 


xix 


PAGE 

Burn  of  Eathie.  —  The  Upper  Old  Red  Sandstones.  —  Scene  in 
Moray,  190-210 


CHAPTER  XII. 

The  two  Aspects  in  which  Matter  can  be  viewed;  Space  and 
Time.  —  Geological  History  of  the  Earlier  Periods.  —  The  Cam- 
brian System.  —  Its  Annelids.  —  The  Silurian  System.  —  Its 
Corals,  Encrinites,  Molluscs,  and  Trilobites.  —  Its  Fish.  —  These 
of  a  high  Order,  and  called  into  Existence  apparently  by  Myri- 
ads. —  Opening  Scene  in  the  History  of  the  Old  Red  Sand- 
stone a  Scene  of  Tempest.  —  Represented  by  the  Great  Con- 
glomerate. —  Red  a  prevailing  Color  among  the  Ancient  Rocks 
contained  in  this  Deposit.  —  Amazing  Abundance  of  Animal 
Life.  —  Exemplified  by  a  Scene  in  the  Herring  Fishery.  —  Plat- 
form of  Death.  —  Probable  Cause  of  the  Catastrophe  which  ren- 
dered it  such,  211-225 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

Successors  of  the  exterminated  Tribes.  —  The  Gap  slowly  filled.  — 
Proof  that  the  Vegetation  of  a  Formation  may  long  survive 
its  Animal  Tribes.  —  Probable  Cause.  —  Immensely  extended 
Period  during  which  Fishes  were  the  Master-existences  of  our 
Planet.  —  Extreme  Folly  of  an  Infidel  Objection  illustrated  by 
the  Fact.  —  Singular  Analogy  between  the  History  of  Fishes 
as  Individuals  and  as  a  Class.  —  Chemistry  of  the  Lower  For- 
mation.—  Principles  on  which  the  Fish- enclosing  Nodules 


XX 


CONTENTS. 


were  probably  formed.  —  Chemical  Effect  of  Animal  Matter 
in  discharging  the  Color  from  Ited  Sandstone.  —  Origin  of 
the  prevailing  tint  to  which  the  System  owes  its  Name.  —  Suc- 
cessive Modes  in  which  a  Metal  may  exist.  —  The  Restorations 
of  the  Geologist  void  of  Color.  —  Very  different  Appearance  of 
the  Ichthyolites  of  Cromarty  and  Moray,     .       .       .  226-242 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

The  Cornstone  Formation  and  its  Organisms.  —  Dwarf  Vegeta- 
tion. —  Cephalaspides.  —  Huge  Lobster.  —  Habitats  of  the  ex- 
isting Crustacea.  —  No  unapt  representation  of  the  Deposit  of 
Balruddery,  furnished  by  a  land-locked  Bay  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Cromarty.  —  Vast  Space  occupied  by  the  Geological 
Formations.  —  Contrasted  with  the  half- formed  Deposits  which 
represent  the  existing  Creation.  —  Inference.  —  The  formation  of 
the  Holoptychius.  —  Probable  origin  of  its  Siliceous  Limestone. 
—  Marked  increase  in  the  Bulk  of  the  Existences  of  the  Sys- 
tem. —  Conjectural  Cause.  — The  Coal  Measures.  —  The  Lime- 
stone of  Burdie  House  Conclusion,    ....  243-259 


Ichthyolites  op  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  —  from  Agassiz's 
"Poissons  Fossiles,"   261-288 


EXPLANATIONS  OF  THE  SECTIONS  AND  PLATES. 


SECTION  I. 

Represents  the  Old  Red  System  of  Scotland  from  its  upper  beds 
of  Yellow  Quartzose  Sandstone  to  its  Great  Conglomerate  base. 
a.  Quartzose  Yellow  Sandstone,  b.  Impure  concretionary  limestone 
enclosing  masses  of  chert,  c.  Red  and  variegated  sandstones  and 
conglomerate.  These  three  deposits  constitute  an  upper  formation 
of  the  system,  characterized  by  its  peculiar  group  of  fossils.  (See 
Chapter  IX.)  cl.  Deposit  of  gray  fissile  sandstone  which  constitutes 
the  middle  formation  of  the  system,  characterized  also  by  its  peculiar 
organic  group.  (See  Chapter  Till.)  e.  Red  and  variegated  sand- 
stones, undistinguishable  often  in  their  mineral  character  from  the 
upper  sandstones,  c,  but  in  general  less  gritty,  and  containing  fewer 
pebbles,  f.  Bituminous  schists,  g.  Coarse  gritty  sandstone.  7i.  Great 
Conglomerate.  These  four  beds  compose  a  lower  formation  of  the 
system,  more  strikingly  marked  by  its  peculiar  organisms  than  even 
the  other  two.  (See  Chapters  II.  III.  IY.  and  Y.)  In  the  section  this 
lower  formation  is  represented  as  we  find  it  developed  in  Caithness 
and  Orkney.  In  fig.  o  it  is  represented  as  developed  in  Cromarty, 
where,  though  the  fossils  are  identical  with  those  of  the  more  north- 
ern localities,  at  least  one  of  the  deposits,  /,  is  mineralogically  differ- 


xxii 


EXPLANATIONS  OF  THE  PLATES. 


ent  —  alternating  beds  of  sandstone  and  clay,  these  last  enclosing 
limestone  nodules,  taking  the  place  of  the  bituminous  schists. 

SECTION  II. 

The  Old  Red  System  of  England  and  Wales,  as  given  in  the  general 
Section  of  Mr.  Murchison,  with  the  Silurian  Hocks  beneath  and  the 
carboniferous  limestone  above,  i.  The  point  in  the  geological  scale 
at  which  vertebrated  existences  first  appear.  The  three  Old  Red 
Sandstone  formations  of  this  section  correspond  in  their  characteristic 
fossils  with  those  of  Scotland,  but  the  proportions  in  which  they  are 
developed  are  widely  different.  The  tilestones  seem  a  comparatively 
narrow  stripe  in  the  system  in  England  ;  the  answering  formation  in 
Scotland,  e,  f,  g,  h,  is  of  such  enormous  thickness,  that  it  has  been 
held  by  very  superior  geologists  to  contain  three  distinct  formations 
—  e,  the  New  Red  Sandstone,  f%  a  representative  of  the  Coal  Meas- 
ures, and  g,  h,  the  Old  Red  Sandstone. 

SECTION  III. 

Interesting  case  of  extensive  denudation  from  existing  causes  on 
the  northern  shore  of  the  Moray  Frith.  (See  pages  197  and  198.) 
The  figures  and  letters  which  mark  the  various  beds  correspond  with 
those  of  fig.  5,  and  of  the  following  section.  The  "  fish-bed,"  No.  1, 
represents  what  the  reader  will  find  described  in  pp.  221-225  as  the 
"  platform  of  sudden  death." 

SECTION  IV. 

Illustration  of  a  fault  in  the  Burn  of  Eathie,  Cromartyshire.  (See 
pages  20-1  and  205.) 


EXPLANATIONS  OF  THE  PLATES. 


xxiii 


Plate  I.  —  Fig.  1,  Restoration  of  upper  side  of  the  elongated  spe- 
cies of  PterichthijSy  (P.  oblongns,)  referred  to  in  page  47.  Fig.  2, 
Pterichthys  Milleri.  Fig.  3,  Part  of  tail  of  elongated  species,  showing 
portions  of  the  original  covering  of  rhornboidal  scales.  Fig.  4,  Tu- 
bercles of  Pterichthys  magnified. 

Plate  II.  —  Fig.  2,  Restoration  of  under  side  of  Pterichthys  ob~ 
longns.  Fig.  1,  A  second  specimen  of  Pterichthys  Milleri.  Fig.  3, 
Portion  of  wing,  natural  size. 

Plate  III.  —  Fig.  1,  Coccosteus  cuspidatus.  Fig.  2,  Impression  of 
inner  surface  of  large  dorsal  plate.  Fig.  3,  Abdominal  lozenge-shaped 
plate.    Fig.  4,  Portion  of  jaw,  with  teeth. 

Plate  IV.  —  Fig.  1,  Restoration  of  Osteolepis  major.  Fig.  2,  Scales 
from  the  upper  part  of  the  body  magnified.  Fig.  3,  Large  defensive 
scale  which  runs  laterally  along  all  the  single  fins.  Fig.  4,  Under 
side  of  scale,  showing  the  attaching  bar.  Fig.  5,  Enamelled  and 
punctulated  jaw  of  the  creature.  Fig.  6,  Magnified  portion  of  fin, 
showing  the  enamelled  and  punctulated  rays. 

Plate  V.  —  Fig.  1,  Dipterus  macrolepidotus.  This  figure  serves 
merely  to  show  the  place  of  the  fins  and  the  general  outline  of  the 
ichthyolite.  All  the  specimens  the  writer  has  hitherto  examined  fail 
to  show  the  minuter  details.  Fig.  2,  Glyptolepis  leptopterus.  Fig.  3, 
Single  scale  of  the  creature,  showing  its  rustic  style  of  ornament. 
Fig.  4,  Scale  with  a  nail-like  attachment.  Fig.  5,  Under  side  of 
scale.  Fig.  6,  Magnified  portion  of  fin.  Fig.  7,  Shells  of  the  Old 
Red  Sandstone. 

Plate  VI.  —  Fig.  1,  Cheirolepis  Cummingice.  Fig.  2,  Magnified 
scales.    Fig.  3,  Magnified  portion  of  fin. 


xxiv 


EXPLANATIONS  OF  THE  PLATES. 


Plate  VII. — -Fig.  1,  Cheiracanthus  microlepidotus.  Fig.  2,  Magni- 
fied scales.  Figs.  3,  4,  5,  6,  7,  8,  Vegetable  impressions  of  the  Old 
Red  Sandstone. 

Plate  VIII.  —  Fig.  1,  Diplacanthus  longispinus.  Fig.  2,  Diplacan- 
thus striatus.  Fig.  3,  Magnified  scales  of  fig.  1.  Fig.  4,  Spine  of  fig. 
2,  slightly  magnified. 

Plate  IX.  —  Fig.  1,  One  of  the  tail  flaps  of  the  gigantic  Crusta- 
cean of  Forfarshire.    Fig.  2,  Reticulated  markings  of  Carmylie. 

Plate  X.  —  Fig.  1,  Cephalaspis  Lyellii,  copied  from  Ly ell's  Elements 
of  Geology,  Fig.  2,  Holoptychius  ?iobilissimusi  copied  on  a  greatly  re- 
duced scale  from  Murchison's  Silurian  System,  Fig.  3,  Scale  of  Holop- 
tychius, natural  size.  Fig,  4,  Tooth  of  ditto,  also  natural  size.  These 
last  drawn  from  specimens  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Patrick  Duff,  of 
Elgin. 


DIRECTIONS  TO  THE  BINDER. 


Sheet  of  Sections  to  front  Title-Page. 


Plate    I.  to       front      page  44 

II.  46 

III.  ...  48 

IV.  .              .  •            .  66 
V.  ...  72 

¥1.  78 

VII.  ...  82 

VIII.  ...  84 

IX.  136 

X.  ...  154 


NEW  WALKS  IN  AN  OLD  FIELD ; 


OR, 

THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


CHAPTER  I. 

The  Working-man's  True  Policy.  —  His  only  Mode  of  acquiring 
Power.  —  The  Exercise  of  the  Faculties  essential  to  Enjoyment.  — 
No  necessary  Connection  between  Labor  and  Unhappiness.  —  Narra- 
tive. —  Scenes  in  a  Quarry.  —  The  two  dead  Birds.  —  Landscape.  — 
Ripple  Markings  on  a  Sandstone  Slab.  —  Boulder  Stones.  —  Infer- 
ence derived  from  their  water-worn  Appearance.  —  Sea-coast  Sec- 
tion. —  My  first  discovered  Fossil,  —  Lias  Deposit  on  the  Shores  of 
the  Moray  Frith.  —  Belemnite.  —  Result  of  the  Experience  of  half 
a  Lifetime  of  Toil.  —  Advantages  of  a  Wandering  Profession  in 
Connection  with  the  Geology  of  a  Country.  —  Geological  Opportu- 
nities of  the  Stone-Mason.  — Design  of  the  present  Work. 

My  advice  to  young  working-men,  desirous  of  bettering 
their  circumstances,  and  adding  to  the  amount  of  their  en- 
joyment, is  a  very  simple  one.  Do  not  seek  happiness  in 
what  is  misnamed  pleasure  ;  seek  it  rather  in  what  is  termed 
study.  Keep  your  consciences  clear,  your  curiosity  fresh, 
and  embrace  every  opportunity  of  cultivating  your  minds. 
You  will  gain  nothing  by  attending  Chartist  meetings.  The 
fellows  who  speak  nonsense  with  fluency  at  these  assemblies, 
and  deem  their  nonsense  eloquence,  are  totally  unable  to  help 
either  you  or  themselves  ;  or,  if  they  do  succeed  in  helping 
1 


2  THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 

themselves,  it  will  be  all  at  your  expense.  Leave  them  to 
harangue  unheeded,  and  set  yourselves  to  occupy  your  lei- 
sure hours  in  making  yourselves  wiser  men.  Learn  to  make 
a  right  use  of  your  eyes  :  the  commonest  things  are  worth 
looking  at  —  even  stones  and  weeds,  and  the  most  familiar 
animals.  Head  good  books,  not  forgetting  the  best  of  all : 
there  is  more  true  philosophy  in  the  Bible  than  in  every  work 
of  every  sceptic  that  ever  wrote  ;  and  we  would  be  all  mis- 
erable creatures  without  it,  and  none  more  miserable  than 
you.  You  are  jealous  of  the  upper  classes  ;  and  perhaps  it 
is  too  true  that,  with  some  good,  you  have  received  much 
evil  at  their  hands.  It  must  be  confessed  they  have  hitherto 
been  doing  comparatively  little  for  you,  and  a  great  deal  for 
themselves.  But  upper  and  lower  classes  there  must  be,  so 
long  as  the  world  lasts  ;  and  there  is  only  one  way  in  which 
your  jealousy  of  them  can  be  well  directed.  Do  not  let  them 
get  ahead  of  you  in  intelligence.  It  would  be  alike  unwise 
and  unjust  to  attempt  casting  them  down  to  your  own  level, 
and  no  class  would  suffer  more  in  the  attempt  than  your- 
selves ;  for  you  would  only  be  clearing  the  way,  at  an  im- 
mense expense  of  blood,  and  under  a  tremendous  pressure 
of  misery,  for  another  and  perhaps  worse  aristocracy,  with 
some  second  Cromwell  or  Napoleon  at  their  head.  Society, 
however,  is  in  a  state  of  continual  flux :  some  in  the  upper 
classes  are  from  time  to  time  going  down,  and  some  of  you 
from  time  to  time  mounting  up  to  take  their  places  —  always 
the  more  steady  and  intelligent  among  you,  remember ;  and 
if  all  your  minds  were  cultivated,  not  merely  intellectually, 
but  morally  also,  you  would  find  yourselves,  as  a  body,  in 
the  possession  of  a  power  which  every  charter  in  the  world 
could  not  confer  upon  you,  and  which  all  the  tyranny  or  in- 
justice of  the  world  could  not  withstand. 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


3 


I  intended,  however,  to  speak  rather  of  the  pleasure  to  be 
derived,  by  even  the  humblest,  in  the  pursuit  of  knowledge, 
than  of  the  power  with  which  knowledge  in  the  masses  is 
invariably  accompanied.  For  it  is  surely  of  greater  impor- 
tance that  men  should  receive  accessions  to  their  own  happi- 
ness, than  to  the  influence  which  they  exert  over  other  men. 
There  is  none  of  the  intellectual,  and  none  of  the  moral  fac- 
ulties, the  exercise  of  which  does  not  lead  to  enjoyment ; 
nay,  it  is  chiefly  in  the  active  employment  of  these  that  all 
enjoyment  consists  ;  and  hence  it  is  that  happiness  bears  so 
little  reference  to  station.  It  is  a  truth  which  has  been  often 
told,  but  very  little  heeded  or  little  calculated  upon,  that 
though  one  nobleman  may  be  happier  than  another,  and 
one  laborer  happier  than  another,  yet  it  cannot  be  at  all  pre- 
mised of  their  respective  orders,  that  the  one  is  in  any  de- 
gree happier  than  the  other.  Simple  as  the  fact  may  seem, 
if  universally  recognized,  it  would  save  a  great  deal  of  use- 
less discontent,  and  a  great  deal  of  envy.  Will  my  humbler 
readers  permit  me  at  once  to  illustrate  this  subject,  and  to 
introduce  the  chapters  which  follow,  by  a  piece  of  simple 
narrative  ?  I  wish  to  show  them  how  possible  it  is  to  enjoy 
much  happiness  in  very  mean  'employments.  Cowper  tells 
us  that  labor,  though  the  primal  curse,  "  has  been  softened 
into  mercy ; "  and  I  think  that,  even  had  he  not  done  so,  I 
would  have  found  out  the  fact  for  myself. 

It  was  twenty  years,  last  February,  since  I  set  out  a  little 
before  sunrise  to  make  my  first  acquaintance  with  a  life  of 
labor  and  restraint,  and  I  have  rarely  had  a  heavier  heart 
than  on  that  morning.  I  was  but  a  slim,  loose-jointed  boy  at 
the  time  —  fond  of  the  pretty  intangibilities  of  romance,  and 
of  dreaming  when  broad  awake  ;  and,  woful  change  !  I  was 
now  going  to  work  at  what  Burns  has  instanced  in  his  "  Twa 


4 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


Dogs"  as  one  of  the  most  disagreeable  of  all  employments  — 
to  work  in  a  quarry.  Bating  the  passing  uneasiness  occa- 
sioned by  a  few  gloomy  anticipations,  the  portion  of  my  life 
which  had  already  gone  by  had  been  happy  beyond  the  com- 
mon lot.  I  had  been  a  wanderer  among  rocks  and  woods  — 
a  reader  of  curious  books  when  I  could  get  them  —  a  gleaner 
of  old  traditionary  stories ;  and  now  I  was  going  to  exchange 
all  my  day-dreams,  and  all  my  amusements,  for  the  kind  of 
life  in  which  men  toil  every  day  that  they  may  be  enabled  to 
eat,  and  eat  every  day  that  they  may  be  enabled  to  toil ! 

The  quarry  in  which  I  wrought  lay  on  the  southern  shore 
of  a  noble  inland  bay,  or  frith,  rather,  with  a  little  clear  stream 
on  the  one  side,  and  a  thick  fir  wood  on  the  other.  It  had 
been  opened  in  the  Old  Eed  Sandstone  of  the  district,  and 
was  overtopped  by  a  huge  bank  of  diluvial  clay,  which  rose 
over  it  in  some  places  to  the  height  of  nearly  thirty  feet,  and 
which  at  this  time  was  rent  and  shivered,  wherever  it  pre- 
sented an  open  front  to  the  weather,  by  a  recent  frost.  A 
heap  of  loose  fragments,  which  had  fallen  from  above, 
blocked  up  the  face  of  the  quarry,  and  my  first  employment 
was  to  clear  them  away.  The  friction  of  the  shovel  soon 
blistered  my  hands ;  but  the  pain  was  by  no  means  very 
severe,  and  I  wrought  hard  and  willingly,  that  I  might  see 
how  the  huge  strata  below,  which  presented  so  firm  and  un- 
broken a  frontage,  were  to  be  torn  up  and  removed.  Picks, 
and  wedges,  and  levers  were  applied  by  my  brother-work- 
men ;  and  simple  and  rude  as  I  had  been  accustomed  to  re- 
gard these  implements,  I  found  I  had  much  to  learn  in  the 
way  of  using  them.  They  all  proved  inefficient,  however ; 
and  the  workmen  had  to  bore  into  one  of  the  inferior  strata, 
and  employ  gunpowder.  The  process  was  new  to  me,  and  I 
deemed  it  a  highly  amusing  one :  it  had  the  merit,  too,  of 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


5 


being  attended  with  some  such  degree  of  danger  as  a  boating 
or  rock  excursion,  and  had  thus  an  interest  independent  of  its 
novelty.  We  had  a  few  capital  shots  :  the  fragments  flew 
in  every  direction ;  and  an  immense  mass  of  the  diluvium 
came  toppling  down,  bearing  with  it  two  dead  birds,  that  in  a 
recent  storm  had  crept  into  one  of  the  deeper  fissures,  to  die 
in  the  shelter.  I  felt  a  new  interest  in  examining  them.  The 
one  was  a  pretty  cock  goldfinch,  with  its  hood  of  vermilion, 
and  its  wings  inlaid  with  the  gold  to  which  it  owes  its  name, 
as  unsoiled  and  smooth  as  if  it  had  been  preserved  for  a  mu- 
seum. The  other,  a  somewhat  rarer  bird,  of  the  woodpecker 
tribe,  was  variegated  with  light  blue  and  a  grayish  yellow.  I 
was  engaged  in  admiring  the  poor  little  things,  more  disposed 
to  be  sentimental,  perhaps,  than  if  I  had  been  ten  years  older, 
and  thinking  of  the  contrast  between  the  warmth  and  jollity 
of  their  green  summer  haunts,  and  the  cold  and  darkness  of 
their  last  retreat,  when  I  heard  our  employer  bidding  the 
workmen  lay  by  their  tools.  I  looked  up,  and  saw  the  sun 
sinking  behind  the  thick  fir  wood  beside  us,  and  the  long, 
dark  shadows  of  the  trees  stretching  downwards  towards  the 
shore. 

This  was  no  very  formidable  beginning  of  the  course  of 
life  I  had  so  much  dreaded.  To  be  sure,  my  hands  were  a 
little  sore,  and  I  felt  nearly  as  much  fatigued  as  if  I  had  been 
climbing  among  the  rocks  ;  but  I  had  wrought  and  been  use- 
ful, and  had  yet  enjoyed  the  day  fully  as  much  as  usual.  It 
was  no  small  matter,  too,  that  the  evening,  converted,  by  a 
rare  transmutation,  into  the  delicious  "  blink  of  rest "  which 
Burns  so  truthfully  describes,  was  all  my  own.  I  was  as 
light  of  heart  next  morning  as  any  of  my  brother-workmen. 
There  had  been  a  smart  frost  during  the  night,  and  the  rime 
lay  white  on  the  grass  as  we  passed  onwards  through  the 


6 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


fields ;  but  the  sun  rose  in  a  clear  atmosphere,  and  the  day 
mellowed,  as  it  advanced,  into  one  of  those  delightful  days  of 
early  spring,  which  give  so  pleasing  an  earnest  of  whatever 
is  mild  and  genial  in  the  better  half  of  the  year.  All  the 
workmen  rested  at  midday,  and  I  went  to  enjoy  my  half- 
hour  alone  on  a  mossy  knoll  in  the  neighboring  wood,  which 
commands  through  the  trees  a  wide  prospect  of  the  bay  and 
the  opposite  shore.  There  was  not  a  wrinkle  on  the  water, 
nor  a  cloud  in  the  sky,  and  the  branches  were  as  moveless 
in  the  calm  as  if  they  had  been  traced  on  canvas.  From  a 
wooded  promontory  that  stretched  half  way  across  the  frith, 
there  ascended  a  thin  column  of  smoke.  It  rose  straight  as 
the  line  of  a  plummet  for  more  than  a  thousand  yards,  and 
then,  on  reaching  a  thinner  stratum  of  air,  spread  out  equally 
on  every  side,  like  the  foliage  of  a  stately  tree.  Ben  Wevis 
rose  to  the  west,  white  with  the  yet  unwasted  snows  of  win- 
ter, and  as  sharply  defined  in  the  clear  atmosphere,  as  if  all 
its  sunny  slopes  and  blue  retiring  hollows  had  been  chiselled 
in  marble.  A  line  of  snow  ran  along  the  opposite  hills  ;  all 
above  was  white,  and  all  below  was  purple.  They  reminded 
me  of  the  pretty  French  story,  in  which  an  old  artist  is  de- 
scribed as  tasking  the  ingenuity  of  his  future  son-in-law,  by 
giving  him,  as  a  subject  for  his  pencil,  a  flower-piece  com- 
posed of  only  white  flowers,  of  which  the  one  half  were  to 
bear  their  proper  color,  the  other  half  a  deep  purple  hue,  and 
yet  all  be  perfectly  natural ;  and  how  the  young  man  resolved 
the  riddle,  and  gained  his  mistress,  by  introducing  a  transpar- 
ent purple  vase  into  the  picture,  and  making  the  light  pass 
through  it  on  the  flowers  that  were  drooping  over  the  edge. 
I  returned  to  the  quarry,  convinced  that  a  very  exquisite 
pleasure  may  be  a  very  cheap  one,  and  that  the  busiest  em- 
ployments may  afford  leisure  enough  to  enjoy  it. 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


7 


The  gunpowder  had  loosened  a  large  mass  in  one  of  the 
inferior  strata,  and  our  first  employment,  on  resuming  our  la- 
bors, was  to  raise  it  from  its  bed.  I  assisted  the  other  work- 
men in  placing  it  on  edge,  and  was  much  struck  by  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  platform  on  which  it  had  rested.  The  en- 
tire surface  was  ridged  and  furrowed  like  a  bank  of  sand  that 
had  been  left  by  the  tide  an  hour  before.  I  could  trace  every 
bend  and  curvature,  every  cross  hollow  and  counter  ridge  of 
the  corresponding  phenomena  ;  for  the  resemblance  was  no 
half  resemblance  — -it  was  the  thing  itself ;  and  I  had  observed 
it  a  hundred  and  a  hundred  times,  when  sailing  my  little  schoon- 
er in  the  shallows  left  by  the  ebb.  But  what  had  become  of  the 
waves  that  had  thus  fretted  the  solid  rock,  or  of  what  element 
had  they  been  composed  ?  I  felt  as  completely  at  fault  as  Rob- 
inson Crusoe  did  on  his  discovering  the  print  of  the  man's  foot 
on  the  sand.  The  evening  furnished  me  with  still  further 
cause  of  wonder.  We  raised  another  block  in  a  different 
part  of  the  quarry,  and  found  that  the  area  of  a  circular 
depression  in  the  stratum  below  was  broken  and  flawed  in 
every  direction,  as  if  it  had  been  the  bottom  of  a  pool  recently 
dried  up,  which  had  shrunk  and  split  in  the  hardening.  Sev- 
eral large  stones  came  rolling  clown  from  the  diluvium  in  the 
course  of  the  afternoon.  They  were  of  different  qualities 
from  the  Sandstone  below,  and  from  one  another  ;  and,  what 
was  more  wonderful  still,  they  were  all  rounded  and  w7ater- 
worn,  as  if  they  had  been  tossed  about  in  the  sea,  or  the  bed 
of  a  river,  for  hundreds  of  years.  There  could  not,  surely,  be 
a  more  conclusive  proof  that  the  bank  which  had  enclosed  them 
so  long  could  not  have  been  created  on  the  rock  on  which  it 
rested.  No  workman  ever  manufactures  a  half-worn  article, 
and  the  stones  were  all  half-worn  !  And  if  not  the  bank, 
why  then  the  sandstone  underneath  ?  I  was  lost  in  conjecture, 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


and  found  I  had  food  enough  for  thought  that  evening,  with- 
out once  thinking  of  the  unhappiness  of  a  life  of  labor. 

The  immense  masses  of  diluvium  which  we  had  to  clear 
away  rendered  the  working  of  the  quarry  laborious  and  ex- 
pensive, and  all  the  party  quitted  it  in  a  few  days,  to  make 
trial  of  another  that  seemed  to  promise  better.  The  one  we 
left  is  situated,  as  I  have  said,  on  the  southern  shore  of  an  in- 
land bay  —  the  Bay  of  Cromarty  ;  the  one  to  which  we  re- 
moved has  been  opened  in  a  lofty  wall  of  cliffs  that  overhangs 
the  northern  shore  of  the  Moray  Frith.  I  soon  found  I  was 
to  be  no  loser  by  the  change.  Not  the  united  labors -of  a 
thousand  men  for  more  than  a  thousand  years  could  have  fur- 
nished a  better  section  of  the  geology  of  the  district  than  this 
range  of  cliffs.  It  may  be  regarded  as  a  sort  of  chance  dis- 
section on  the  earth's  crust.  We  see  in  one  place  the  pri- 
mary rock,  with  its  veins  of  granite  and  quartz,  its  dizzy  preci- 
pices of  gneiss,  and  its  huge  masses  of  hornblende  ;  we  find 
the  secondary  rock  in  another,  with  its  beds  of  sandstone  and 
shale,  its  spars,  its  clays,  and  its  nodular  limestones.  We  dis- 
cover the  still  little  known  but  highly  interesting  fossils  of  the 
Old  Red  Sandstone  in  one  deposition  ;  we  find  the  beautifully 
preserved  shells  and  lignites  of  the  Lias  in  another.  There 
are  the  remains  of  two  several  creations  at  once  before  us. 
The  shore,  too,  is  heaped  with  rolled  fragments  of  almost 
every  variety  of  rock,  —  basalts,  ironstones,  hypersthenes,  por- 
phyries, bituminous  shales,  and  micaceous  schists.  In  short, 
the  young  geologist,  had  he  all  Europe  before  him,  could 
hardly  choose  for  himself  a  better  field.  I  had,  however,  no 
one  to  tell  me  so  at  the  time,  for  geology  had  not  yet  travelled 
so  far  north  ;  and  so,  without  guide  or  vocabulary,  I  had  to 
grope  my  way  as  I  best  might,  and  find  out  all  its  wonders 
for  myself.    But  so  slowT  was  the  process,  and  so  much  was  I 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


9 


a  seeker  in  the  dark,  that  the  facts  contained  in  these  few  sen- 
tences were  the  patient  gatherings  of  years. 

In  the  course  of  the  first  day's  employment,  I  picked  up  a 
nodular  mass  of  blue  limestone,  and  laid  it  open  by  a  stroke 
of  the  hammer.  Wonderful  to  relate,  it  contained  inside  a 
beautifully  finished  piece  of  sculpture  —  one  of  the  volutes 
apparently  of  an  Ionic  capital ;  and  not  the  far-famed  walnut 
of  the  fairy  tale,  had  I  broken  the  shell  and  found  the  little 
dog  lying  within,  could  have  surprised  me  more.  Was  there 
another  such  curiosity  in  the  whole  world  ?  I  broke  open  a 
few  other  nodules  of  similar  appearance, —  for  they  lay  pretty 
thickly  on  the  shore,  —  and  found  that  there  might.  In  one 
of  these  there  were  what  seemed  to  be  the  scales  of  fishes, 
and  the  impressions  of  a  few  minute  bivalves,  prettily  striated  ; 
in  the  centre  of  another  there  was  actually  a  piece  of  decayed 
wood.  Of  all  Nature's  riddles  these  seemed  to  me  to  be  at 
once  the  most  interesting,  and  the  most  difficult  to  expound, 
I  treasured  them  carefully  up,  and  was  told  by  one  of  the 
workmen  to  whom  I  showed  them,  that  there  was  a  part  of 
the  shore  about  two  miles  farther  to  the  west,  where  curiously 
shaped  stones,  somewhat  like  the  heads  of  boarding-pikes, 
were  occasionally  picked  up  ;  and  that  in  his  father's  days 
the  country  people  called  them  thunderbolts,  and  deemed 
them  of  sovereign  efficacy  in  curing  bewitched  cattle.  Our 
employer,  on  quitting  the  quarry  for  the  building  on  which  we 
were  to  be  engaged,  gave  all  the  workmen  a  half-holiday.  I 
employed  it  in  visiting  the  place  where  the  thunderbolts  had 
fallen  so  thickly,  and  found  it  a  richer  scene  of  wonder  than  I 
could  have  fancied  in  even  my  dreams. 

What  first  attracted  my  notice  was  a  detached  group  of  low 
lying  skerries,  wholly  different  in  form  and  color  from  the 
sandstone  cliffs  above,  or  the  primary  rocks  a  little  farther  to 


10 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


the  west.  I  found  them  composed  of  thin  strata  of  limestone, 
alternating  with  thicker  beds  of  a  black  slaty  substance,  which, 
as  I  ascertained  in  the  course  of  the  evening,  burns  with  a 
powerful  flame,  and  emits  a  strong  bituminous  odor.  The 
layers  into  which  the  beds  readily  separate  are  hardly  an 
eighth  part  of  an  inch  in  thickness,  and  yet  on  every  layer 
there  are  the  impressions  of  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands 
of  the  various  fossils  peculiar  to  the  Lias.  We  may  turn  over 
these  wonderful  leaves  one  after  one,  like  the  leaves  of  a  her- 
barium, and  find  the  pictorial  records  of  a  former  creation  in 
every  page.  Scallops,  and  gryphites,  and  ammonites,  of  almost 
every  variety  peculiar  to  the  formation,  and  at  least  some  eight 
or  ten  varieties  of  belemnite  ;  twigs  of  wood,  leaves  of  plants, 
cones  of  an  extinct  species  of  pine,  bits  of  charcoal,  and  the 
scales  of  fishes;  and,  as  if  to  render  their  pictorial  appear- 
ance more  striking,  though  the  leaves  of  this  interesting 
volume  are  of  a  deep  black,  most  of  the  impressions  are  of  a 
chalky  whiteness.  I  was  lost  in  admiration  and  astonishment, 
and  found  my  very  imagination  paralyzed  by  an  assemblage 
of  wonders,  that  seemed  to  outrival,  in  the  fantastic  and  the 
extravagant,  even  its  wildest  conceptions.  I  passed  on  from 
ledge  to  ledge,  like  the  traveller  of  the  tale  through  the  city 
of  statues,  and  at  length  found  one  of  the  supposed  aerolites  I 
had  come  in  quest  of,  firmly  imbedded  in  a  mass  of  shale. 
But  I  had  skill  enough  to  determine  that  it  was  other  than 
what  it  had  been  deemed.  A  very  near  relative,  who  had 
been  a  sailor  in  his  Jime  on  almost  every  ocean,  and  had  visit- 
ed almost  every  quarter  of  the  globe,  had  brought  home  one 
of  these  meteoric  stones  with  him  from  the  coast  of  Java.  It 
was  of  a  cylindrical  shape  and  vitreous  texture,  and  it  seemed 
to  have  parted  in  the  middle  when  in  a  half-molten  state,  and 
to  have  united  again,  somewhat  awry,  ere  it  had  cooled  enough 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


11 


to  have  lost  the  adhesive  quality.  But  there  was  nothing 
organic  in  its  structure,  whereas  the  stone  I  had  now  found 
was  organized  very  curiously  indeed.  It  was  of  a  conical 
form  and  filamentary  texture,  the  filaments  radiating  in  straight 
lines  from  the  centre  to  the  circumference.  Finely-marked 
veins  like  white  threads  ran  transversely  through  these  in  its 
upper  half  to  the  point,  while  the  space  below  was  occupied 
by  an  internal  cone,  formed  of  plates  that  lay  parallel  to  the 
base,  and  which,  like  watch-glasses,  were  concave  on  the  un- 
der side,  and  convex  on  the  upper.  I  learned  in  time  to  call 
this  stone  a  belemnite,  and  became  acquainted  with  enough  of 
its  history  to  know  thai  it  once  formed  part  of  a  variety  of  cut- 
tle-fish, long  since  extinct. 

My  first  year  of  labor  came  to  a  close,  and  I  found  that  the 
amount  of  my  happiness  had  not  been  less  than  in  the  last  of 
my  boyhood.  My  knowledge,  too,  had  increased  in  more 
than  the  ratio  of  former  seasons ;  and  as  I  had  acquired  the 
skill  of  at  least  the  common  mechanic,  I  had  fitted  myself  for 
independence.  The  additional  experience  of  twenty  years 
has  not  shown  me  that  there  is  any  necessary  connection  be- 
tween a  life  of  toil  and  a  life  of  wretchedness  ;  and  when  I 
have  found  good  men  anticipating  a  better  and  a  happier  time 
than  either  the  present  or  the  past,  the  conviction  that  in  every 
period  of  the  world's  history  the  great  bulk  of  mankind  must 
pass  their  days  in  labor,  has  not  in  the  least  inclined  me  to 
scepticism. 

My  curiosity,  once  fully  awakened,  remained  awake,  and 
my  opportunities  of  gratifying  it  have  been  tolerably  ample. 
I  have  been  an  explorer  of  caves  and  ravines  —  a  loiterer 
along  sea-shores  —  a  climber  among  rocks  —  a  laborer  in 
quarries.  My  profession  was  a  wandering  one.  I  remember 
passing  direct,  on  one  occasion,  from  the  wild  western  coast 


12 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


of  Ross-shire,  where  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  leans  at  a  high 
angle  against  the  prevailing  Quartz  Rock  of  the  district,  to 
where,  on  the  southern  skirts  of  Mid-Lothian,  the  Mountain 
Limestone  rises  amid  the  coal.  I  have  resided  one  season  on 
a  raised  beach  of  the  Moray  Frith.  I  have  spent  the  season 
immediately  following  amid  the  ancient  granites  and  contort- 
ed schists  of  the  central  Highlands.  In  the  north  I  have  laid 
open  by  thousands  the  shells  and  lignites  of  the  Oolite  ;  in  the 
south  I  have  disinterred  from  their  matrices  of  stone  or  of 
shale  the  huge  reeds  and  tree  ferns  of  the  Carboniferous  pe- 
riod. I  have  been  taught  by  experience,  too,  how  neces- 
sary an  acquaintance  wTith  geology  of  both  extremes  of  the 
kingdom  is  to  the  right  understanding  of  the  formations  of 
either.  In  the  north,  there  occurs  a  vast  gap  in  the  scale. 
The  Lias  leans  unconformably  against  the  Old  Red  Sand- 
stone ;  there  is  no  Mountain  Limestone,  no  Coal  Measures, 
none  of  the  New  Red  Marls  or  Sandstones,  Under  or  Upper. 
There  are  at  least  three  entire  systems  omitted.  But  the  upper 
portion  of  the  scale  is  well  nigh  complete.  In  one  locality 
we  may  pass  from  the  Lower  to  the  Upper  Lias,  in  another 
from  the  Inferior  to  the  Great  Oolite,  and  onward  to  the  Ox- 
ford Clay  and  the  Coral  Rag.  We  may  explore,  in  a  third 
locality,  beds  identical  in  their  organisms  with  the  Wealden 
of  Sussex.  In  a  fourth  we  find  the  flints  and  fossils  of  the 
Chalk.  The  lower  part  of  the  scale  is  also  wrell  nigh  com- 
plete. The  Old  Red  Sandstone  is  amply  developed  in  Moray, 
Caithness,  and  Ross  ;  and  the  Grauwacke,  in  its  more  ancient 
unfossiliferous  type,  rather  extensively  in  Banffshire.  But  to 
acquaint  one's  self  with  the  three  missing  formations,  —  to 
complete  one's  knowledge  of  the  entire  scale  by  filling  up 
the  hiatus,  —  it  is  necessary  to  remove  to  the  south.  The 
geology  of  the  Lothians  is  the  geology  of  at  least  twTo  thirds 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


13 


of  the  gap,  and  perhaps  a  little  more  ;  —  the  geology  of  Ar- 
ran  wants,  it  is  supposed,  only  the  Upper  New  lied  Sandstone 
to  fill  it  entirely. 

One  important  truth  I  would  fain  press  on  the  attention  of 
my  lowlier  readers.  There  are  few  professions,  however 
humble,  that  do  not  present  their  peculiar  advantages  of  ob- 
servation ;  there  are  none,  I  repeat,  in  which  the  exercise  of 
the  faculties  does  not  lead  to  enjoyment.  I  advise  the  stone- 
mason, for  instance,  to  acquaint  himself  with  Geology.  Much 
of  his  time  must  be  spent  amid  the  rocks  and  quarries  of 
widely  separated  localities.  The  bridge  or  harbor  is  no  soon- 
er completed  in  one  district,  than  he  has  to  remove  to  where 
the  gentleman's  seat,  or  farm-steading  is  to  be  erected  in  an- 
other ;  and  so,  in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  he  may  pass 
over  the  whole  geological  scale,  even  when  restricted  to  Scot- 
land, from  the  Grauwacke  of  the  Lammermuirs,  to  the 
Wealden  of  Moray,  or  the  Chalk-flints  of  Banffshire  and 
Aberdeen  ;  and  this,  too,  with  opportunities  of  observation,  at 
every  stage,  which  can  be  shared  with  him  by  only  the  gen- 
tleman of  fortune,  who  devotes  his  whole  time  to  the  study. 
Nay,  in  some  respects,  his  advantages  are  superior  to  those 
of  the  amateur  himself.  The  latter  must  often  pronounce  a 
formation  unfossiliferous  when,  after  the  examination  of  at 
most  a  few  days,  he  discovers  in  it  nothing  organic  ;  and  it 
will  be  found  that  half  the  mistakes  of  geologists  have  arisen 
from  conclusions  thus  hastily  formed.  But  the  working-man, 
whose  employments  have  to  be  carried  on  in  the  same  forma- 
tion for  months,  perhaps  years,  together,  enjoys  better  oppor- 
tunities for  arriving  at  just  decisions.  There  are,  besides,  a 
thousand  varieties  of  accident  which  lead  to  discovery  — 
floods,  storms,  landslips,  tides  of  unusual  height,  ebbs  of  ex- 
traordinary fall :  and  the  man  who  plies  his  labor  at  all  sea- 
2 


14 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


sons  in  the  open  air  has  by  much  the  best,  chance  of  profiting 
by  these.  There  are  formations  which  yield  their  organisms 
slowly  to  the  discoverer,  and  the  proofs  which  establish  their 
place  in  the  geological  scale  more  tardily  still.  I  was  ac- 
quainted with  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  of  Ross  and  Cromarty 
for  nearly  ten  years  ere  I  had  ascertained  that  it  is  richly 
fossiliferous  —  a  discovery  which,  in  exploring  this  formation 
in  those  localities,  some  of  our  first  geologists  had  failed  to 
anticipate.  I  was  acquainted  with  it  for  nearly  ten  years  more 
ere  I  could  assign  to  its  fossils  their  exact  place  in  the  scale. 

In  the  following  chapters  I  shall  confine  my  observations 
chiefly  to  this  system  and  its  organisms.  To  none  of  the 
others,  perhaps,  excepting  the  Lias  of  the  north  of  Scotland, 
have  I  devoted  an  equal  degree  of  attention  ;  nor  is  there  a 
formation  among  them  which,  up  to  the  present  time,  has  re- 
mained so  much  a  terra  incognita  to  the  geologist.  The 
space  on  both  sides  has  been  carefully  explored  to  its  upper 
and  lower  boundary  ;  the  space  between  has  been  suffered  to 
remain  well  nigh  a  chasm.  Should  my  facts  regarding  it  — 
facts  constituting  the  slow  gatherings  of  years  —  serve  as 
stepping-stones  laid  across,  until  such  time  as  geologists  of 
greater  skill,  and  more  extended  research,  shall  have  bridged 
over  the  gap,  I  shall  have  completed  half  my  design.  Should 
the  working-man  be  encouraged  by  my  modicum  of  success 
to  improve  his  opportunities  of  observation,  I  shall  have  ac- 
complished the  whole  of  it.  It  cannot  be  too  extensively 
known,  that  nature  is  vast  and  knowledge  limited  ;  and  that 
no  individual,  however  humble  in  place  or  acquirement,  need 
despair  of  adding  to  the  general  fund. 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


15 


CHAPTER  II. 

The  Old  Red  Sandstone.  —  Till  very  lately  its  Existence  as  a  distinct 
Formation  disputed.  —  Still  little  known.  —  Its  great  Importance  in 
the  Geological  Scale.  — Illustration.  — The  North  of  Scotland  gir- 
dled by  an  immense  Belt  of  Old  Red  Sandstone.  —  Line  of  the  Gir- 
dle along  the  Coast.  —  Marks  of  vast  Denudation.  —  Its  Extent  par- 
tially indicated  by  Hills  on  the  Western  Coast  of  Ross-shire.  — The 
System  of  Great  Depth  in  the  North  of  Scotland.  —  Difficulties  in 
the  way  of  estimating  the  Thickness  of  Deposits.  —  Peculiar  Forma- 
tion of  Hill.  —  Illustrated  by  Ben  Nevis.  —  Caution  to  the  Geological 
Critic.  —  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone  immensely  developed  in  Caith- 
ness. —  Sketch  of  the  Geology  of  that  County.  —  Its  strange  Group 
of*  Fossils.  —  Their  present  place  of  Sepulture.  —  Their  ancient 
Habitat.  —  Agassiz.  —  Amazing  Progress  of  Fossil  Ichthyology  dur- 
ing the  last  few  Years.  —  Its  Nomenclature.  —  Learned  Names  repel 
unlearned  Readers.  —  Not  a  great  deal  in  them. 

"  The  Old  Red  Sandstone,"  says  a  Scottish  geologist,  in  a 
digest  of  some  recent  geological  discoveries,  which  appeared 
a  short  time  ago  in  an  Edinburgh  newspaper, "  has  been  hith- 
erto considered  as  remarkably  barren  of  fossils."  The  re- 
mark is  expressive  of  a  pretty  general  opinion  among  geolo- 
gists of  even  the  present  time,  and  I  quote  it  on  this  account. 
Only  a  few  years  have  gone  by  since  men  of  no  low  standing 
in  the  science  disputed  the  very  existence  of  this  formation  — 
system  rather,  for  it  contains  at  least  three  distinct  formations  ; 
and  but  for  the  influence  of  one  accomplished  geologist,  the 
celebrated  author  of  the  Silurian  System,  it  would  have  been 
probably  degraded  from  its  place  in  the  scale  altogether. 
"  You  must  inevitably  give  up  the  Old  Red  Sandstone,"  said 
an  ingenious  foreigner  to  Mr.  Murchison,  when  on  a  visit  to 
England  about  four  years  ago,  and  whose  celebrity  among  his 


16 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


own  countrymen  rested  chiefly  on  his  researches  in  the*more 
ancient  formations,  —  "  you  must  inevitably  give  up  the  Old 
Red  Sandstone  :  it  is  a  mere  local  deposit,  a  doubtful  accu- 
mulation huddled  up  in  a  corner,  and  has  no  type  or  represen- 
tative abroad."  "  I  would  willingly  give  it  up  if  nature  would," 
was  the  reply  ;  "  but  it  assuredly  exists,  and  I  cannot."  In  a 
recently  published  tabular  exhibition  of  the  geological  scale 
by  a  continental  geologist,  I  could  not  distinguish  this  system 
at  all.  There  are  some  of  our  British  geologists,  too,  who 
still  regard  it  as  a  sort  of  debatable  tract,  entitled  to  no  inde- 
pendent status.  They  find,  in  what  they  deem  its  upper  beds, 
the  fossils  of  the  Coal  Measures,  and  the  lower  graduating 
apparently  into  the  Silurian  System  ;  and  regard  the  whole 
as  a  sort  of  common,  which  should  be  divided  as  proprietors 
used  to  divide  commons  in  Scotland  half  a  century  ago,  by 
giving  a  portion  to  each  of  the  bordering  territories.  Even 
the  better  informed  geologists,  who  assign  to  it  its  proper 
place  as  an  independent  formation,  furnished  with  its  own 
organisms,  contrive  to  say  all  they  know  regarding  it  in  a 
very  few  paragraphs.  Lyell,  in  the  first  edition  of  his  admi- 
rable elementary  work,  published  only  two  years  ago,  devotes 
more  than  thirty  pages  to  his  description  of  the  Coal  Measures, 
and  but  two  and  a  half  to  his  notice  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone.  * 


*  As  the  succinct  notice  of  this  distinguished  geologist  may  serve 
as  a  sort  of  pocket  map  to  the  reader  in  indicating  the  position  of  the 
system,  its  three  great  deposits,  and  its  extent,  I  take  the  liberty  of 
transferring  it  entire. 

"  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 

"  It  "was  stated  that  the  Carboniferous  formation  was  surmounted 
by  one  called  the  «  New  lied  Sandstone,'  and  underlaid  by  another 
called  the  Old  Red,  which  last  was  formerly  merged  in  the  Carbonifer- 
ous System,  but  is  now  found  to  be  distinguishable  by  its  fossils.  The 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


17 


It  will  be  found,  however,  that  this  hitherto  neglected  sys- 
tem yields  in  importance  to  none  of  the  others,  whether  we 
take  into  account  its  amazing  depth,  the  great  extent  to 
which  it  is  developed  both  at  home  and  abroad,  the  interest- 
ing links  which  it  furnishes  in  the  zoological  scale,  or  the 
vast  period  of  time  which  it  represents.  There  are  localities 
in  which  the  depth  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  fully  equals 
the  elevation  of  Mount  ./Etna  over  the  level  of  the  sea,  and 
in  which  it  contains  three  distinct  groups  of  organic  remains, 


Old  Red  Sandstone  is  of  enormous  thickness  in  Herefordshire, 
"Worcestershire,  Shropshire,  and  South  "Wales,  where  it  is  seen  to 
crop  out  beneath  the  Coal  Measures,  and  to  repose  on  the  Silurian 
Rocks.  In  that  region,  its  thickness  has  been  estimated  by  Mr. 
Murchison  at  no  less  than  ten  thousand  feet.    It  consists  there  of  — 

"  1st.  A  quartzosc  conglomerate,  passing  downwards  into  chocolate- 
red  and  green  sandstone  and  marl. 

"  2d.  Cornstone  and  marl,  (red  and  green  argillaceous  spotted  marls, 
with  irregular  courses  of  impure  concretionary  limestone,  provin- 
cially  called  Cornstone,  mottled  red  and  green  ;  remains  of  fishes.) 

"  3d.  Tilestone,  (finely  laminated  hard  reddish  or  green  micaceous 
or  quartzose  sandstones,  which  split  into  tiles  ;  remains  of  mollusca 
and  fishes.) 

"I  have  already  observed  that  fossils  are  rare  in  marls  and  sand- 
stones in  which  the  red  oxide  of  iron  prevails.  In  the  Cornstone, 
however,  of  the  counties  above  mentioned,  fishes  of  the  genera  Ceph- 
alaspis  and  Onchus  have  been  discovered.  In  the  Tilestone,  also, 
Ichthyodorulites  of  the  genus  Onchus  have  been  obtained,  and  a 
species  of  Dipterus,  with  mollusca  of  the  genera  Avicula,  Area,  Cucul- 
lsea,  Terebratula,  Lingula,  Turbo,  Trochus,  Turritella,  Bellerophon, 
Orthoceras,  and  others. 

"  By  consulting  geological  maps,  the  reader  will  perceive  that,  from 
Wales  to  the  north  of  Scotland,  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  appears  in 
patches,  and  often  in  large  tracts.  Many  fishes  have  been  found  in  it 
at  Caithness,  and  various  organic  remains  in  the  northern  part  of 
2* 


IS 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


the  one  rising  in  beautiful  progression  over  the  other.  Let 
the  reader  imagine  a  digest  of  English  history,  complete 
from  the  times  of  the  invasion  of  Julius  Caesar  to  the  reign 
of  that  Harold  who  was  slain  at  Hastings,  and  from  the  times 
of  Edward  III.  down  to  the  present  day,  but  bearing  no 
record  of  the  Williams,  the  Henrys,  the  Edwards,  the  John, 
Stephen,  and  Richard,  that  reigned  during  the  omitted  period, 
or  of  the  striking  and  important  events  by  which  their  sev- 
eral reigns  were  distinguished.  A  chronicle  thus  mutilated 
and  incomplete  would  be  no  unapt  representation  of  a  geo- 
logical history  of  the  earth  in  which  the  period  of  the  Uppei 
Silurian  would  be  connected  v/ith  that  of  the  Mountain  Lime- 
stone, or  of  the  limestone  of  Burdie  House,  and  the  period 
of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  omitted. 

The  eastern  and  western  coasts  of  Scotland,  which  lie  to 


Fifeshire,  where  it  crops  out  from  beneath  tlie  Coal  formation,  and 
spreads  into  the  adjoining  northern  half  of  Forfarshire  ;  forming,  to- 
gether with  trap,  the  Sicllaw  Hills  and  valley  of  Strathmore.  A 
large  belt  of  this  formation  skirts  the  northern  borders  of  the  Gram- 
pians, from  the  seacoast  at  Stonehaven  and  the  Frith  of  Tay  to  the 
opposite  western  coast  of  the  Frith  of  Clyde.  In  Forfarshire,  where, 
as  in  Herefordshire,  it  is  many  thousand  feet  thick,  it  may  be  divided 
into  three  principal  masses —  1st.  Iled  and  mottled  marls,  cornstone, 
and  sandstone  ;  2d.  Conglomerate,  often  of  vast  thickness  ;  3d.  Tile- 
stones,  and  paving-stone,  highly  micaceous,  and  containing  a  slight 
admixture  of  carbonate  of  lime.  In  the  uppermost  of  these  divisions, 
but  chiefiy  in  the  lowest,  the  remains  of  fish  have  been  found,  of  the 
genus  named  by  M.  Agassiz  Cephalaspis,  or  buckler-headed,  from 
the  extraordinary  shield  which  covers  the  head,  and  which,  has  often 
been  mistaken  for  that  of  a  trilobite  of  the  division  Asaphus.  A 
gigantic  species  of  fish,  of  the  genus  Holoptychius,  has  also  been 
found  by  Dr.  Fleming  in  the  Old  Iled  Sandstone  of  Fifeshire."  — 
Lyell's  Elements,  pp.  452-L 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


19 


the  north  of  the  Friths  of  Forth  and  Clyde,  together  with  the 
southern  flank  of  the  Grampians  and  the  northern  coast  of 
Sutherland  and  Caithness,  appear  to  have  been  girdled  at 
some  early  period  by  immense  continuous  beds  of  Old  Red 
Sandstone.  At  a  still  earlier  time,  the  girdle  seems  to  have 
formed  an  entire  mantle,  which  covered  the  enclosed  tract  from 
side  to  side.  The  interior  is  composed  of  what,  after  the 
elder  geologists,  I  shall  term  primary  rocks  —  porphyries, 
granites,  gneisses,  and  micaceous  schists ;  and  this  central 
nucleus,  as  it  now  exists,  seems  set  in  a  sandstone  frame. 
The  southern  bar  of  the  frame  is  still  entire :  it  stretches 
along  the  Grampians  from  Stonehaven  to  the  Frith  of  Clyde. 
The  northern  bar  is  also  well  nigh  entire  :  it  runs  unbroken 
along  the  whole  northern  coast  of  Caithness,  and  studs,  in 
three  several  localities,  the  northern  coast  of  Sutherland, 
leaving  breaches  of  no  very  considerable  extent  between. 
On  the  east,  there  are  considerable  gaps,  as  along  the  shores 
of  Aberdeenshire.*  The  sandstone,  however,  appears  at 
Garnrie,  in  the  county  of  Banff,  in  a  line  parallel  to  the  coast, 
and,  after  another  interruption,  follows  the  coast  of  the  Moray 
Frith  far  into  the  interior  of  the  great  Caledonian  valley,  and 
then  running  northward  along  the  shores  of  Cromarty,  Ross, 
and  Sutherland,  joins,  after  another  brief  interruption,  the 
northern  bar  at  Caithness.    The  western  bar  has  also  its 


*  The  progress  of  discovery  lias  shown,  since  this  passage  was 
written,  that  these  gaps  are  not  quite  so  considerable  as  I  had  sup- 
posed. The  following  paragraph,  which  appeared  in  July,  1843,  in  an 
Aberdeen  paper,  bears  directly  on  the  point,  and  is  worthy  of  being 
preserved :  — 

"  ARTESIAN  WELL. 

"The  greatest  of  these  interesting  works  yet  existing  in  Aberdeen 
has  just  been  successfully  completed  at  the  tape-works  of  Messrs. 


20 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


breaches  towards  the  south  ;  but  it  stretches,  almost  without 
interruption,  for  about  a  hundred  miles,  from  the  near  neigh- 
borhood of  Cape  Wrath  to  the  southern  extremity  of  Apple- 
cross  ;  and  though  greatly  disturbed  and  overflown  by  the 
traps  of  the  inner  Hebrides,  it  can  be  traced  by  occasional 
patches  on  towards  the  southern  bar.  It  appears  on  the 
northern  shore  of  Loch  Alsh,  on  the  eastern  shore  of  Loch 
Eichart,  on  the  southern  shore  of  Loch  Eil,  on  the  coast 
and  islands  near  Oban,  and  on  the  east  coast  of  Arran.  De- 
tached hills  and  island-like  patches  of  the  same  formation 
occur  in  several  parts  of  the  interior,  far  within  the  frame  or 


Milne,  Low,  and  Co.,  "Woolmanliill.  The  bore  is  8  inches  in  diame- 
ter, and  250  feet  9  inches  deep.  It  required  nearly  eleven  months' 
working  to  complete  the  excavation. 

"In  its  progress,  the  following  strata  were  cut  through  in  succes- 
sion :  — 

6  feet  vegetable  mould. 
18   "  gray  or  bluish  clay. 

2'J    "   sand  and  shingle,  enclosing  rolled  stones  of  various  sizes. 
6    "   light  blue  clay. 
3    "  rough  sand  and  shingle. 
115   "  Old  Red  Sandstone  conglomerate,  composed  of  red  clay,  quartz,  mica, 
and  rolled  stones. 

74  "  alternating  strata  of  compact,  fine-grained  Red  Sandstone,  varying  in 
thickness  from  1  to  7  feet,  and  clay,  varying  from  G  inches  to  12  feet 
thick. 

8  "  9  inches,  mica-slate  formation,  the  first  two  feet  of  which  were  chiefly  a 
hard,  brown  quartzose  substance,  containing  iron,  manganese,  and 
carbonate  of  lime. 

250  feet,  9  inches. 

"The  temperature  of  the  water  at  the  bottom  of  the  well,  when 
completed,  was  found  to  be  within  a  fraction  of  50°  Fahrenheit,  and 
the  average  temperature  of  the  locality,  deduced  from  twenty-three 
years'  observation,  by  the  late  George  limes,  F.  R.  S.,  is  47°  1 : 
hence,  nearly  3  degrees  of  increase  appear  as  the  effects  of  central 
heat.    The  supply  of  water  obtained  is  excellent  in  quality,  and  suf- 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


21 


girdle.  It  caps  some  of  the  higher  summits  in  Sutherland- 
shire  ;  it  forms  an  oasis  of  sandstone  among  the  primary 
districts  of  Strathspey;  it  rises  on  the  northern  shores  of 
Loch  Ness  in  an  immense  mass  of  conglomerate,  based  on 
a  small-grained,  red  granite,  to  a  height  of  about  three  thou- 
sand feet  over  the  level ;  and  on  the  north-western  coast  of 
Ross-shire  it  forms  three  immense  insulated  hills,  of  at 
least  no  lower  altitude,  that  rest  unconformably  on  a  base  of 
gneiss. 

There  appear  every  where  in  connection  with  these  patches 
and  eminences,  and  with  the  surrounding  girdle,  marks  of 
vast  denudation.    I  have  often  stood  fronting  the  three  Ross- 


ficient  in  quantity  for  all  the  purposes  of  the  works.  Such  an  oppor- 
tunity of  investigating  the  geology  of  the  locality  can  but  rarely 
occur  ;  and,  in  the  present  instance,  the  proprietor  and  managers 
afforded  every  facility  to  scientific  inquirers  for  conducting  examina- 
tions. To  make  the  bearings  of  the  case  clear  and  simple,  the  fol- 
lowing is  quoted  from  Mr.  Miller's  work  on  the  Old  Red  Sandstone. 
[The  writer  here  quotes  the  above  passage,  and  then  proceeds.]  Mr. 
Miller  will  be  glad  to  learn,  that  though  the  convulsions  of  nature 
have  shattered  the  '  frame '  along  the  shores  of  Aberdeenshire,  yet 
the  fragments  are  not  lost,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  section  above 
described;  they  are  here  reposing  in  situ  under  the  accumulated 
debris  of  uncounted  ages  — ~  chiefly  the  '  boulder  clay,'  and  sediment- 
ary deposits  of  the  Dee  and  Don,  during  a  period  when  they  mingled 
their  waters  in  the  basin  in  which  Aberdeen  now  stands.  The  pri- 
mary rocks  —  the  settings  —  our  granites,  of  matchless  beauty 
stand  out  in  bold  relief  a  mile  or  two  westward  from  the  seacoast. 
Within  this  year  or  two,  the  1  Old  lied '  has  been  discovered  at  Dc- 
vanha,  Union  Grove,  Huntly  Street,  Glenburnie,  Balgownie,  and 
various  other  localities  to  the  northward.  Hence  it  may  reasonably 
be  inferred,  that  our  fragment  of  the  <  frame  '  envelops  the  primary 
rocks  under  our  city,  and  along  the  coast  for  a  considerable  distance 
between  the  Dee  and  the  Buchaness,"  —  Aberdeen  Constitutional, 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


shire  hills*  at  sunset  in  the  finer  summer  evenings,  when  the 
clear  light  threw  the  shadows  of  their  gigantic,  cone-like 
forms  far  over  the  lower  tract,  and  lighted  up  the  lines  of 
their  horizontal  strata,  till  they  showed  like  courses  of  ma- 
sonry in  a  pyramid.  They  seem  at  such  times  as  if  colored 
by  the  geologist,  to  distinguish  them  from  the  surrounding 
tract,  and  from  the  base  on  which  they  rest  as  on  a  common 
pedestal.  The  prevailing  gneiss  of  the  district  reflects  a 
cold,  bluish  hue,  here  and  there  speckled  with  white,  where 
the  weathered  and  lichened  crags  of  intermingled  quartz 
rock  jut  out  on  the  hill-sides  from  among  the  heath.  The 
three  huge  pyramids,  on  the  contrary,  from  the  deep  red  of 
the  stone,  seem  flaming  in  purple.  There  spreads  all  around 
a  wild  and  desolate  landscape  of  broken  and  shattered  hills, 
separated  by  deep  and  gloomy  ravines,  that  seem  the  rents 
and  fissures  of  a  planet  in  ruins,  and  that  speak  distinctly  of 
a  period  of  convulsion,  when  upheaving  fires  from  the  abyss, 
and  ocean  currents  above,  had  contended  in  sublime  antag- 
onism, the  one  slowly  elevating  the  entire  tract,  the  other 
grinding  it  down  and  sweeping  it  away.  I  entertain  little 
doubt  that,  when  this  loftier  portion  of  Scotland,  including 
the  entire  Highlands,  first  presented  its  broad  back  over  the 
waves,  the  upper  surface  consisted  exclusively,  from  the  one 
extremity  to  the  other — -from  Benlomond  to  the  Maidenpaps 
of  Caithness— of  a  continuous  tract  of  Old  Red  Sandstone; 
though,  ere  the  land  finally  emerged,  the  ocean  currents  of 
ages  had  swept  it  away,  all  except  in  the  lower  and  last- 
raised  borders,  and  in  the  detached  localities,  where  it  still 
remains,  as  in  the  pyramidal  hills  of  western  Ross-shire,  to 
show  the  amazing  depth  to  which  it  had  once  overlaid  the 


*  Suil  Yeinn,  Coul  Bog,  and  Coul  More. 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


23 


inferior  rocks.  The  Old  Red  Sandstone  of  Morvheim,  in 
Caithness,  overlooks  all  the  primary  hills  of  the  district,  from 
an  elevation  of  three  thousand  five  hundred  feet. 

The  depth  of  the  system,  on  both  the  eastern  and  western 
coasts  of  Scotland,  is  amazingly  great  —  how  great,  I  shall  not 
venture  to  say.  There  are  no  calculations  more  doubtful  than 
those  of  the  geologist.  The  hill  just  instanced  (Morvheim)  is 
apparently  composed  from  top  to  bottom  of  what  in  Scotland 
forms  the  lowest  member  of  the  system — a  coarse  conglom- 
erate ;  and  yet  I*  have  nowhere  observed  this  inferior  mem- 
ber, when  I  succeeded  in  finding  a  section  of  it  directly  ver- 
tical, more  than  a  hundred  yards  in  thickness  —  less  than 
one  tenth  the  height  of  the  hill.  It  would  be  well  nigh  as 
unsafe  to  infer  that  the  three  thousand  five  hundred  feet  of 
altitude  formed  the  real  thickness  of  the  conglomerate,  as  to 
infer  that  the  thickness  of  the  lead  which  covers  the  dome 
of  St.  Paul's  is  equal  to  the  height  of  the  dome.  It  is  always 
perilous  to  estimate  the  depth  of  a  deposit  by  the  height  of  a 
hill  that  seems  externally  composed  of  it,  unless,  indeed,  like 
the  pyramidal  hills  of  Ross-shire,  it  be  unequivocally  a  hill 
dug  out  by  denudation,  as  the  sculptor  digs  his  eminences 
out  of  the  mass.  In  most  of  our  hills,  the  upheaving  agency 
has  been  actively  at  work,  and  the  space  within  is  occupied 
by  an  immense  nucleus  of  inferior  rock,  around  which  the 
upper  formation  is  wrapped  like  a  caul,  just  as  the  vegetable 
mould  or  the  diluvium  wraps  up  this  superior  covering  in 
turn.  One  of  our  best  known  Scottish  mountains  —  the  gi- 
gantic Ben  Nevis  —  furnishes  an  admirable  illustration  of 
this  latter  construction  of  hill.  It  is  composed  of  three  zones 
or  rings  of  rock,  the  one  rising  over  and  out  of  the  other, 
like  the  cases  of  an  opera-glass  drawn  out.  The  lower  zone 
is  composed  of  gneiss  and  mica-slate,  the  middle  zone  of 


24 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


granite,  the  terminating  zone  of  porphyry.  The  elevating 
power  appears  to  have  acted  in  the  centre,  as  in  the  well- 
known  case  of  Jorullo,  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  city  of 
Mexico,  where  a  level  tract  four  square  miles  in  extent  rose, 
about  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  into  a  high  dome  of 
more  than  double  the  height  of  Arthur's  Seat.*  In  the  forma- 
tion of  our  Scottish  mountain,  the  gneiss  and  mica-slate  of  the 
district  seem  to  have  been  upheaved,  during  the  first  period 

*  It  is  rarely  that  the  geologist  catches  a  hill  in  the  act  of  forming, 
and  hence  the  interest  of  this  well-attested  instance.  From  the  period 
of  the  discovery  of  America  to  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  the 
plains  of  Jorullo  had  undergone  no  change  of  surface,  and  the  seat  of 
the  present  hill  was  covered  by  plantations  of  indigo  and  sugar-cane, 
when,  in  June,  1759,  hollow  sounds  were  heard,  and  a  succession 
of  earthquakes  continued  for  sixty  days,  to  the  great  consternation 
of  the  inhabitants.  After  the  cessation  of  these,  and  in  a  period 
of  tranquillity,  on  the  28th  and  29th  of  September,  a  horrible  subter- 
ranean noise  was  again  heard,  and  a  tract  four  square  miles  in  extent 
rose  up  in  the  shape  of  a  dome  or  bladder,  to  the  height  of  sixteen 
hundred  and  seventy  feet  above  the  original  level  of  the  plain.  The 
affrighted  Indians  fled  to  the  mountains  ;  and  from  thence  looking 
down  on  the  phenomenon,  saw  flames  issuing  from  the  earth  for  miles 
around  the  newly- elevated  hill,  and  the  softened  surface  rising  and 
falling  like  that  of  an  agitated  sea,  and  opening  into  numerous  rents 
and  fissures.  Two  brooks  which  had  watered  the  plantations  precip- 
itated themselves  into  the  burning  chasms.  The  scene  of  this  singular 
event  was  visited  by  Humboldt  about  the  beginning  of  the  present 
century.  At  that  period,  the  volcanic  agencies  had  become  compara- 
tively quiescent ;  the  hill,  however,  retained  its  original  altitude ;  a 
number  of  smaller  hills  had  sprung  up  around  it ;  and  the  traveller 
found  the  waters  of  the  engulfed  rivulets  escaping  at  a  high  tempera- 
ture from  caverns  charged  with  sulphureous  vapors  and  carbonic  acid 
gas.  There  wore  inhabitants  of  the  country  living  at  the  time  who 
were  more  than  twenty  years  older  than  the  hill  of  Jorullo,  and  who 
had  witnessed  its  rise. 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


25 


of  Plutonic  action  in  the  locality,  into  a  rounded  hill  of  mod- 
erate altitude,  but  of  huge  base.  The  upheaving  power  con- 
tinued to  operate  —  the  gneiss  and  mica-slate  gave  waya-top 
—  and  out  of  this  lower  dome  there  arose  a  higher  dome  of 
granite,  which,  in  an  after  and  terminating  period  of  the  inter- 
nal activity,  gave  way  in  turn  to  yet  a  third  and  last  dome  of 
porphyry.  Now,  had  the  elevating  forces  ceased  to  operate 
just  ere  the  gneiss  and  mica-slate  had  given  way,  wTe  would 
have  known  nothing  of  the  interior  nucleus  of  granite  —  had 
they  ceased  just  ere  the  granite  had  given  way,  we  would 
have  known  nothing  of  the  yet  deeper  nucleus  of  por- 
phyry ;  and  yet  the  granite  and  the  porphyry  would  as- 
suredly have  been  there.  Nor  could  any  application  of 
the  measuring  rule  to  the  side  of  the  hill  have  ascertained 
the  thickness  of  its  outer  covering —  the  gneiss  and  the  mica 
schist.  The  geologists  of  the  school  of  Werner  used  to  illus- 
trate what  we  may  term  the  anatomy  of  the  earth,  as  seen 
through  the  spectacles  of  their  system,  by  an  onion  and  its 
coats  :  they  represented  the  globe  as  a  central  nucleus,  encir- 
cled by  concentric  coverings,  each  covering  constituting  a  geo- 
logical formation.  The  onion,  through  the  introduction  of  a  bet- 
ter school,  has  become  obsolete  as  an  illustration  ;  but  to  restore 
it  again,  though  for  another  purpose,  we  have  merely  to  cut  it 
through  the  middle,  and  turn  downwards  the  planes  formed 
by  the  knife.  It  then  represents,  with  its  coats,  hills  such  as  we 
describe  —  hills  such  as  Ben  Nevis,  ere  the  granite  had  per- 
forated the  gneiss,  or  the  porphyry  broken  through  the  granite. 

If  it  be  thus  unsafe,  however,  to  calculate  on  the  depth  of 
deposits  by  the  altitude  of  hills,  it  is  quite  as  unsafe  for  the 
geologist,  who  has  studied  a  formation  in  one  district,  to  set 
himself  to  criticise  the  calculations  of  a  brother  geologist  by 
whom  it  has  been  studied  in  a  different  and  widely-separated 
3 


26 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


district.  A  deposit  in  one  locality  may  be  found  to  possess 
many  times  the  thickness  of  the  same  deposit  in  another. 
There  are  exposed,  beside  the  Northern  and  Southern  Sutors 
of  Cromarty,  two  nearly  vertical  sections  of  the  coarse  con- 
glomerate bed,  which  forms,  as  I  have  said,  in  the  north  of 
Scotland,  the  base  of  the  Old  Red  System,  and  which  rises 
to  so  great  an  elevation  in  the  mountain  of  Morvheim.  The 
sections  are  little  more  than  a  mile  apart ;  and  yet,  while 
the  thickness  of  this  bed  in  the  one  does  not  exceed  one  hun- 
dred feet,  that  of  the  same  bed  in  the  other  somewhat  exceeds 
two  hundred  feet.  More  striking  still  —  under  the  Northern 
Sutor,  the  entire  Geology  of  Caithness,  with  all  its  vast  beds, 
and  all  its  numerous  fossils,  from  the  granitic  rock  of  the  Ord 
hill,  the  southern  boundary  of  the  county,  to  the  uppermost 
sandstones  of  Dunnet-head,  its  extreme  northern  corner,  is 
exhibited  in  a  vertical  section  not  more  than  three  hundred 
yards  in  extent.  And  yet  so  enormous  is  the  depth  of  the 
deposit  in  Caithness,  that  it  has  been  deemed  by  a  very  supe- 
rior geologist  to  represent  three  entire  formations  —  the  Old 
Red  System,  by  its  unfossiliferous,  arenaceous,  and  conglom- 
erate beds  ;  the  Carboniferous  System,  by  its  dark-colored 
middle  schists,  abounding  in  bitumen  and  ichthyolites  ;  and 
the  New  Red  Sandstone,  by  the  mottled  marls  and  moulder- 
ing sandstones  that  overlie  the  whole.*  A  slight  sketch  of 
the  Geology  of  Caithness  may  not  be  deemed  uninteresting. 
This  county  includes,  in  the  state  of  greatest  development 

*  Dr.  Hibbert,  whose  researches  among  the  limestones  of  Burdie 
Hous*e  have  been  of  such  importance  to  Geology,  was  of  this  opinion. 
I  find  it  also  expressed  in  the  admirable  geological  appendix  affixed 
by  the  Messrs.  Anderson  to  their  Guide  to  the  Highlands  and  Islands  of 
Scotland.  "  No  beds  of  real  coal,"  say  these  gentlemen,  "have  been 
discovered  in  Caithness  ;  and  it  would  thus  appear  that  the  middle 


4 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


27 


any  where  yet  known,  that  fossiliferous  portion  of  the  Old 
Red  Sandstone  which  I  purpose  first  to  describe,  and  which 
will  yet  come  to  be  generally  regarded  as  an  independent 
formation,  as  unequivocally  characterized  by  its  organic 
remains  as  the  formations  either  above  or  below  it. 

The  county  of  Sutherland  stretches  across  the  island  from 
the  German  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  and  presents,  throughout 
its  entire  extent,  —  except  where  a  narrow  strip  of  the  Oolitic 
formation  runs  along  its  eastern  coast,  and  a  broken  belt  of 
Old  Red  Sandstone  tips  its  capes  and  promontories  on  the 
west,  —  a  broken  and  tumultuous  sea  of  primary  hills. 
Scarce  any  of  our  other  Scottish  counties  are  so  exclusively 
Highland,  nor  are  there  any  of  them  in  which  the  precipices 
are  more  abrupt,  the  valleys  more  deep,  the  rivers  more 
rapid,  or  the  mountains  piled  into  more  fantastic  groups  and 
masses.  The  traveller  passes  into  Caithness,  and  finds  him- 
self surrounded  by  scenery  of  an  aspect  so  entirely  dissimilar, 
that  no  examination  of  the  rocks  is  necessary  to  convince  him 
of  a  geological  difference  of  structure.  An  elevated  and  un- 
even plain  spreads  around  and  before  him,  league  beyond 
league,  in  tame  and  unvaried  uniformity,  —  its  many  hollows 
darkened  by  morasses,  over  which  the  intervening  eminences 
rise  in  the  form  rather  of  low  moory  swellings,  than  of  hills, 
—  its  coasts  walled  round  by  cliffs  of  gigantic  altitude,  that 
elevate  the  district  at  one  huge  stride  from  the  level  of  the 
sea,  and  skirted  by  vast  stacks  and  columns  of  rock,  that 


schistose  system  of  the  county,  containing  the  fossil  fish,  is  in  geologi- 
cal character  and  position  intermediate  between  the  Old  and  New 
Red  Sandstone  formations,  but  not  identical  with  the  Carboniferous 
Limestone,  or  the  true  Coal  Measures,  although  probably  occupying 
the  place  of  one  or  other  of  them."  —  p.  198. 


28 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


stand  out  like  the  advanced  pickets  of  the  land  amid  the 
ceaseless  turmoil  of  the  breakers.  The  district,  as  shown  on 
the  map,  presents  nearly  a  triangular  form  —  the  Pentland 
Frith  and  the  German  Ocean  describing  two  of  its  sides, 
while  the  base  is  formed  by  the  line  of  boundary  which  sepa- 
rates it  from  the  county  of  Sutherland. 

Now,  in  a  geological  point  of  view,  this  angle  may  be  re- 
garded as  a  vast  pyramid,  rising  perpendicularly  from  the 
basis  furnished  by  the  primary  rocks  of  the  latter  county,  and 
presenting  newer  beds  and  strata  as  we  ascend,  until  we 
reach  the  apex.  The  line  from  south  to  north  in  the  angle  — 
from  Morvheim  to  Dunnet-head  —  corresponds  to  the  line  of 
ascent  from  the  top  to  the  bottom  of  the  pyramid.  The  first 
bed,  reckoning  from  the  base  upwards,  —  the  ground  tier  of 
the  masonry,  if  I  may  so  speak,  —  is  the  great  conglomerate. 
It  runs  along  the  line  of  boundary  from  sea  to  sea,  —  from 
the  Ord  of  Caithness  on  the  east,  to  Portskerry  on  the  north ; 
and  rises,  as  it  approaches  the  primary  hills  of  Sutherland, 
into  a  lofty  mountain  chain  of  bold  and  serrated  outline,  which 
attains  its  greatest  elevation  in  the  hill  of  Morvheim.  This 
great  conglomerate  bed,  the  base  of  the  system,  is  represented 
in  the  Cromarty  section,  under  the  Northern  Sutor,  by  a  bed 
two  hundred  and  fifteen  feet  in  thickness.  The  second  tier 
of  masonry  in  the  pyramid,  and  which  also  runs  in  a  nearly 
parallel  line  from  sea  to  sea,  is  composed  mostly  of  a  coarse 
red  and  yellowish  sandstone,  with  here  and  there  beds  of  peb- 
bles enclosed,  and  here  and  there  deposits  of  green  earth  and 
red  marl.  It  has  its  representative  in  the  Cromarty  section, 
in  a  bed  of  red  and  yellow  arenaceous  stone,  one  hundred 
and  fourteen  feet  six  inches  in  thickness.  These  two  inferior 
beds  possess  but  one  character,  —  they  are  composed  of  the 
same  materials,  with  merely  this  difference,  that  the  rocks 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


29 


which  have  hecn  broken  into  pebbles  for  the  construction  of 
the  one,  have  been  ground  into  sand  for  the  composition  of 
the  other.  Directly  over  them,  the  middle  portion  of  the  pyr- 
amid is  occupied  by  an  enormous  deposit  of  dark-colored 
bituminous  schist,  slightly  micaceous,  calcareous,  or  semi-cal- 
careous, —  here  and  there  interlaced  with  veins  of  carbonate 
of  lime,  —  here  and  there  compact  and  highly  siliceous, — 
and  bearing  in  many  places  a  mineralogical  character  diffi- 
cult to  be  distinguished  from  that  at  one  time  deemed  peculiar 
to  the  harder  grauwacke  schists.  The  Caithness  flagstones, 
so  extensively  employed  in  paving  the  footways  of  our  larger 
towns,  are  furnished  by  this  immense  middle  tier  or  belt,  and 
represent  its  general  appearance.  From  its  lowest  to  its 
highest  beds  it  is  charged  with  fossil  fish  and  obscure  vegeta- 
ble impressions ;  and  we  find  it  represented  in  the  Cromarty 
section  by  alternating  bands  of  sandstones,  stratified  clays, 
and  bituminous  and  nodular  limestones,  which  form  altogether 
a  bed  three  hundred  and  fifty-five  feet  in  thickness  ;  nor  does 
this  bed  lack  its  organisms,  animal  and  vegetable,  gencrically 
identical  with  those  of  Caithness.  The  apex  of  the  pyramid 
is  formed  of  red  mouldering  sandstones  and  mottled  marls, 
which  exhibit  their  uppermost  strata  high  over  the  eddies  of 
the  Pentland  Frith,  in  the  huge  precipices  of  Dunnet-head, 
and  which  are  partially  represented  in  the  Cromarty  section 
by  an  unfossiliferous  sandstone  bed  of  unascertained  thick- 
ness ;  but  which  can  be  traced  for  about  eighty  feet  from  the 
upper  limestones  and  stratified  clays  of  the  middle  member, 
until  lost  in  overlying  beds  of  sand  and  shingle. 

I  am  particular,  at  the  risk,  lam  afraid,  of  being  tedious, 
in  thus  describing  the  Geology  of  this  northern  county,  and 
of  the  Cromarty  section,  which  represents  and  elucidates  it. 
They  illustrate  more  than  the  formations  of  two  insulated 
3* 


30 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


districts  :  they  represent  also  a  vast  period  of  time  m  the 
history  of  the  globe.  The  pyramid,  with  its  three  huge  bars, 
its  foundations  of  granitic  rock,  its  base  of  red  conglomerate, 
its  cental  band  of  dark-colored  schist,  and  its  lighter  tinted 
apex  of  sandstone,  is  inscribed  from  bottom  to  top,  like  an 
Egyptian  obelisk,  with  a  historical  record.  The  upper  and 
lower  sections  treat  of  tempests  and  currents  —  the  middle  is 
u  written  within  and  without "  with  wonderful  narratives  of 
animal  life  ;  and  yet  the  whole,  taken  together,  comprises  but 
an  earlier  portion  of  that  chronicle  of  existences  and  events 
furnished  by  the  Old  Red  Sandstone.  It  is,  however,  with 
this  earlier  portion  that  my  acquaintance  is  most  minute. 

My  first  statement  regarding  it  must  be  much  the  reverse 
of  the  borrowed  one  with  which  this  chapter  begins.  The 
fossils  are  remarkably  numerous,  and  in  a  state  of  high  pres- 
ervation, I  have  a  hundred  solid  proofs  by  which  to  estab- 
lish the  truth  of  the  assertion,  within  less  than  a  yard  of  me. 
Half  my  closet  walls  are  covered  with  the  peculiar  fossils  of 
the  Lower  Old  Eed  Sandstone  ;  and  certainly  a  stranger 
assemblage  of  forms  have  rarely  been  grouped  together;  — 
creatures  whose  very  type  is  lost,  fantastic  and  uncouth,  and 
which  puzzle  the  naturalist  to  assign  them  even  their  class  ; 
—  boat-like  animals,  furnished  with  oars  and  a  rudder  ; —  fish 
plated  over,  like  the  tortoise,  above  and  below,  with  a  strong 
armor  of  bone,  and  furnished  with  but  one  solitary  rudder- 
like fin  ;  other  fish  less  equivocal  in  their  form,  but  with  the 
membranes  of  their  fins  thickly  covered  with  scales  ;  —  crea- 
tures bristling  over  with  thorns  ;  others  glistening  in  an  enam- 
elled coat,  as  if  beautifully  japanned  —  the  tail,  in  every  in- 
stance among  the  less  equivocal  shapes,  formed  not  equally, 
as  in  existing  fish,  on  each  side  the  central  vertebral  column, 
but  chiefly  on  the  lower  side  —  the  column  sending  out  its 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


31 


diminished  vertebrae  to  the  extreme  termination  of  the  fin. 
All  the  forms  testify  of  a  remote  antiquity  —  of  a  period 
whose  u  fashions  have  passed  away."  The  figures  on  a 
Chinese  vase  or  an  Egyptian  obelisk  are  scarce  more  unlike 
what  now  exists  in  nature,  than  the  fossils  of  the  Lower  Old 
Red  Sandstone. 

Geology,  of  all  the  sciences,  addresses  itself  most  power- 
fully to  the  imagination,  and  hence  one  main  cause  of  the 
interest  which  it  excites.  Ere  setting  ourselves  minutely  to 
examine  the  peculiarities  of  these  creatures,  it  would  be  per- 
haps well  that  the  reader  should  attempt  realizing  the  place  of 
their  existence,  and  relatively  the  time  —  not  of  course  with 
regard  to  dates  and  eras,  for  the  geologist  has  none  to  reckon 
by,  but  with  respect  to  formations.  They  were  the  denizens 
of  the  same  portion  of  the  globe  which  we  ourselves  inhabit, 
regarded  not  as  a  tract  of  country,  but  as  a  piece  of  ocean 
crossed  by  the  same  geographical  lines  of  latitude  and  longi- 
tude. Their  present  place  of  sepulture  in  some  localities, 
had  there  been  no  denudation,  would  have  been  raised  high 
over  the  tops  of  our  loftiest  hills— -at  least  a  hundred  feet 
over  the  conglomerates  which  form  the  summit  of  Morvheim, 
and  more  than  a  thousand  feet  over  the  snow-capped  Ben 
Wyvis.  Geology  has  still  greater  wonders.  I  have  seen 
belemnites  of  the  Oolite  —  comparatively  a  modern  forma- 
tion—  which  had  been  dug  out  of  the  sides  of  the  Himalaya 
mountains,  seventeen  thousand  feet  over  the  level  of  the  sea. 
But  let  us  strive  to  carry  our  minds  back,  not  to  the  place 
of  sepulture  of  these  creatures,  high  in  the  rocks,  —  though 
that  I  shall  afterwards  attempt  minutely  to  describe,  —  but  to 
the  place  in  which  they  lived,  long  ere  the  sauroid  fishes  of 
Burdie  House  had  begun  to  exist,  or  the  corallines  of  the 
mountain  limestone  had  spread  out  their  multitudinous  arms 


32 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


in  a  sea  gradually  shallowing,  and  out  of  which  the  land  had 
already  partially  emerged. 

A  continuous  ocean  spreads  over  the  space  now  occupied 
by  the  British  islands  :  in  the  tract  covered  by  the  green 
fields  and  brown  moors  of  our  own  country,  the  bottom,  for 
a  hundred  yards  downwards,  is  composed  of  the  debris  of 
rolled  pebbles  and  coarse  sand  intermingled,  long  since  con- 
solidated into  the  lower  member  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  ; 
the  upper  surface  is  composed  of  banks  of  sand,  mud,  and 
clay  ;  and  the  sea,  swarming  with  animal  life,  flows  over  all. 
My  present  object  is  to  describe  the  inhabitants  of  that  sea. 

Of  these,  the  greater  part  yet  discovered  have  been  named 
by  Agassiz,  the  highest  authority  as  an  ichthyologist  in 
Europe  or  the  world,  and  in  whom  the  scarcely  more  cele-' 
brated  Cuvier  recognized  a  naturalist  in  every  respect  worthy 
to  succeed  him.  The  comparative  amount  of  the  labors  of 
these  two  great  men  in  fossil  ichthyology,  and  the  amazing 
acceleration  which  has  taken  place  within  the  last  few 
years  in  the  progress  of  geological  science,  are  illustrated 
together,  and  that  very  strikingly,  by  the  following  interesting 
fact  —  a  fact  derived  directly  from  Agassiz  himself,  and  which 
must  be  new  to  the  great  bulk  of  my  readers.  When  Cuvier 
closed  his  researches  in  this  department,  he  had  named  and 
described,  for  the  guidance  of  the  geologist,  ninety-two  distinct 
species  of  fossil  fish  ;  nor  was  it  then  known  that  the  entire 
geological  scale,  from  the  Upper  Tertiary  to  the  Grauwacke 
inclusive,  contained  more.  Agassiz  commenced  his  labors  ; 
and,  in  a  period  of  time  little  exceeding  fourteen  years,  he 
has  raised  the  number  of  species  from  ninety-two  to  sixteen 
hundred.  And  this  number,  great  as  it  is,  is  receiving  acces- 
sions almost  every  day.  In  his  late  visit  to  Scotland,  he  found 
eleven  new  species,  and  one  new  genus,  in  the  collection  of 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


33 


Lady  Gumming  of  Altyre,  all  from  the  upper  beds  of  that 
lower  member  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  represented  by  the 
dark-colored  schists  and  inferior  sandstones  of  Caithness. 
He  found  forty-two  new  species  more  in  a  single  collec- 
tion in  Ireland,  furnished  by  the  Mountain  Limestone  of 
Armagh. 

Some  of  my  humbler  readers  may  possibly  be  repelled  by 
his  names ;  they  are,  like  all  names  in  science,  unfamiliar  in 
their  respect  to  mere  English  readers,  just  because  they  are 
names  not  for  England  alone,  but  for  England  and  the  world. 
I  am  assured,  however,  that  they  are  all  composed  of  very 
good  Greek,  and  picturesquely  descriptive  of  some  pecu- 
liarity in  the  fossils  they  designate.  One  of  his  ichthyolites, 
with  a  thorn  or  spine  in  each  fin,  bears  the  name  of  Acan- 
thodes,  or  thorn-like  ;  another  with  a  similar  mechanism  of 
spines  attached  to  the  upper  part  of  the  body,  and  in  which 
the  pectoral  or  hand-fins  are  involved,  has  been  designated 
the  Cheir acanthus,  or  thorn-hand  ;  a  third  covered  with  curi- 
ously-fretted scales,  has  been  named  the  Glyptolepis,  or 
carved-scale  ;  and  a  fourth,  roughened  over  with  berry-like 
tubercles,  that  rise  from  strong  osseous  plates,  is  known  as  the 
Coccosteus,  or  berry-on-bone.  And  such  has  been  his  principle 
of  nomenclature.  The  name  is  a  condensed  description. 
But  though  all  his  names  mean  something,  they  cannot  mean 
a  great  deal ;  and  as  learned  words  repel  unlearned  readers, 
I  shall  just  take  the  liberty  of  reminding  mine  of  the  humbler 
class,  that  there  is  no  legitimate  connection  between  Geology 
and  the  dead  languages.  The  existences  of  the  Old  Red 
Sandstone  had  lived  for  ages,  and  had  been  dead  for  myriads 
of  ages,  ere  there  was  Greek  enough  in  the  world  to  furnish 
them  with  names.    There  is  no  working-man,  if  he  be  a  per- 


84 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


son  of  intelligence  and  information,  however  unlearned,  in 
the  vulgar  acceptation  of  the  phrase,  who  may  not  derive  as 
much  pleasure  and  enlargement  of  idea  from  the  study  of 
Geology,  and  acquaint  himself  as  minutely  with  its  truths,  as 
if  possessed  of  all  the  learning  of  Bentley. 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


35 


CHAPTER  III. 

Lamarck's  Theory  of  Progression  illustrated.  —  Class  of  Facts  which 
give  Color  to  it.  —  The  Credulity  of  Unbelief.  —  M.  Maillct  and  his 
Fish-birds.  —  Gradation  not  Progress.  —  Geological  Argument.  — 
The  Present  incomplete  without  the  Past.  —  Intermediate  Links 
of  Creation.  —  Organisms  of  the  Lower  Old  lied  Sandstone.  — 
The  Pterichthys.  —  Its  first  Discovery.  —  Mr.  Murchison's  Decision 
regarding  it.  —  Confirmed  by  that  of  Agassiz.  —  Description.  — 
The  several  Varieties  of  the  Fossil  yet  discovered.  —  Evidence  of 
Violent  Death  in  the  Attitudes  in  which  they  are  found.  —  The 
Coccosteus  of  the  Lower  Old  Red.  —  Description.  —  Gradations 
from  Crustacea  to  Fishes.  —  Habits  of  the  Coccosteus.  —  Scarcely 
any  Conception  too  extravagant  for  Nature  to  realize. 

Mr.  Lyell's  brilliant  and  popular  work,  The  Principles  of 
Geology,  must  have  introduced  to  the  knowledge  of  most  of 
my  readers  the  strange  theories  of  Lamarck.  The  ingenious 
foreigner,  on  the  strength  of  a  few  striking  facts,  which 
prove  that,  to  a  certain  extent,  the  instincts  of  species  may 
be  improved  and  heightened,  and  their  forms  changed  from  a 
lower  to  a  higher  degree  of  adaptation  to  their  circumstances, 
has  concluded  that  there  is  a  natural  progress  from  the  in- 
ferior orders  of  being  towards  the  superior ;  and  that  the  off- 
spring of  creatures  low  in  the  scale  in  the  present  time,  may 
hold  a  much  higher  place  in  it,  and  belong  to  different  and 
nobler  species,  a  few  thousand  years  hence.  The  descend- 
ants of  the  ourang-oiitang,  for  instance,  may  be  employed  in 
some  future  age  in  writing  treatises  on  Geology,  in  which 
they  shall  have  to  describe  the  remains  of  the  quadrumana 
as  belonging  to  an  extinct  order.  Lamarck  himself,  when 
bearing  home  in  triumph  with  him  the  skeleton  of  some  huge 


86 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


salamander  or  crocodile  of  the  Lias,  might  indulge,  consist- 
ently with  his  theory,  in  the  pleasing  belief  that  he  had  pos- 
sessed himself  of  the  bones  of  his  grandfather  —  a  grand- 
father removed,  of  course,  to  a  remote  degree  of  consan- 
guinity, by  the  intervention  of  a  few  hundred  thousand 
great-greats.  Never  yet  was  there  a  fancy  so  wild  and  ex- 
travagant but  there  have  been  men  bold  enough  to  dignify  it 
with  the  name  of  philosophy,  and  ingenious  enough  to  find 
reasons  for  the  propriety  of  the  name. 

*  The  setting-dog  is  taught  to  set ;  he  squats  down  and  points 
at  the  game  ;  but  the  habit  is  an  acquired  one  —  a  mere  trick 
of  education.  What,  however,  is  merely  acquired  habit  in 
the  progenitor,  is  found  to  pass  into  instinct  in  the  descend- 
ant :  the  puppy  of  the  setting-dog  squats  down  and  sets 
untaught  —  the  educational  trick  of  the  parent  is  mysterious- 
ly transmuted  into  an  original  principle  in  the  offspring.  The 
adaptation  which  takes  place  in  the  forms  and  constitution  of 
plants  and  animals,  when  placed  in  circumstances  different 
from  their  ordinary  ones,  is  equally  striking.  The  woody 
plant  of  a  warmer  climate,  when  transplanted  into  a  colder, 
frequently  exchanges  its  ligneous  stem  for  a  herbaceous  one, 
as  if  in  anticipation  of  the  killing  frosts  of  winter ;  and, 
dying  to  the  ground  at  the  close  of  autumn,  shoots  up  again 
in  spring.  The  dog,  transported  from  a  temperate  into  a 
frigid  region,  exchanges  his  covering  of  hair  for  a  covering 
of  wool ;  when  brought  back  again  to  his  former  habitat,  the 
wool  is  displaced  by  the  original  hair.  And  hence,  and  from 
similar  instances,  the  derivation  of  an  argument,  good  so  far 
as  it  goes,  for  changes  in  adaptation  to  altered  circum- 
stances of  the  organization  of  plants  and  animals,  and  for 
the  unprovability  of  instinct.  But  it  is  easy  driving  a  prin- 
ciple too  far.    The  elasticity  of  a  common  bow,  and  the 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


.37 


strength  of  an  ordinary  arm,  are  fully  adequate  to  the  trans- 
mission  of  an  arrow  from  one  point  of  space  to  another  point 
a  hundred  yards  removed  ;  but  he  would  be  a  philosopher 
worth  looking  at,  who  would  assert  that  they  were  equally 
adequate  for  the  transmission  of  the  same  arrow  from  points 
removed,  not  by  a  hundred  yards,  but  by  a  hundred  miles. 
And  such,  but  still  more  glaring,  has  been  the  error  of  La- 
marck. Fie  has  argued  on  this  principle  of  improvement 
and  adaptation  — which,  carry  it  as  far  as  we  rationally  may, 
still  leaves  the  vegetable  a  vegetable,  and  the  dog  a  dog  — 
that,  in  the  vast  course  of  ages,  inferior  have  risen  into  supe- 
rior natures,  and  lower  into  higher  races ;  that  molluscs  and 
zoophytes  have  passed  into  fish  and  reptiles,  and  fish  and 
reptiles  into  birds  and  quadrupeds  ;  that  unformed,  gelatinous 
bodies,  with  an  organization  scarcely  traceable,  have  been 
metamorphosed  into  oaks  and  cedars ;  and  that  monkeys  and 
apes  have  been  transformed  into  human  creatures,  capable  of 
understanding  and  admiring  the  theories  of  Lamarck.  As- 
suredly there  is  no  lack  of  faith  among  infidels ;  their 
"  vaulting  "  credulity  o'erleaps  revelation,  and  "  falls  on  the 
other  side."  One  of  the  first  geological  works  I  ever  read 
was  a  philosophical  romance,  entitled  Tettiamed,  by  a  M. 
Maillet,  an  ingenious  Frenchman  of  the  days  of  Louis  XV. 
This  Maillet  was  by  much  too  great  a  philosopher  to  credit 
the  scriptural  account  of  Noah's  flood ;  and  yet  he  could  be- 
lieve, like  Lamarck,  that  the  whole  family  of  birds  had  existed 
at  one  time  as  fishes,  which,  on  being  thrown  ashore  by  the 
waves,  had  got  feathers  by  accident ;  and  that  men  themselves 
are  but  the  descendants  of  a  tribe  of  sea-monsters,  who,  tiring 
of  their  proper  element,  crawled  up  the  beach  one  sunny 
morning,  and,  taking  a  fancy  to  the  land,  forgot  to  return.* 


*  Few  men  could  describe  better  than  Maillet.   His  extravagances 
4 


38 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


"  How  easy,"  says  this  fanciful  writer,  "  is  it  to  conceive 
the  change  of  a  winged  fish,  flying  at  times  through  the  water, 
at  times  through  the  air,  into  a  bird  flying  always  through 
the  air  !  "    It  is  a  law  of  nature,  that  the  chain  of  being, 


are  as  amusing  as  those  of  a  fairy  tale,  and  quite  as  extreme.  Take 
the  following  extract  as  an  instance  :  — 

"  Winged  or  flying  fish,  stimulated  by  the  desire  of  prey,  or  the  fear 
of  death,  or  pushed  near  the  shore  by  the  billows,  have  fallen  among 
reeds  or  herbage,  whence  it  was  not  possible  for  them  to  resume  their 
flight  to  the  sea,  by  means  of  which  they  had  contracted  their  first 
facility  of  flying.  Then  their  fins,  being  no  longer  bathed  in  the  sea- 
water,  were  split,  and  became  warped  by  their  dryness.  While  they 
found,  among  the  reeds  and  herbage  among  which  they  fell,  any  ali- 
ments to  support  them,  the  vessels  of  their  fins,  being  separated,  were 
lengthened  and  clothed  with  beards,  or,  to  speak  more  justly,  the  mem- 
branes, which  before  kept  them  adherent  to  each  other,  were  meta- 
morphosed. The  beard  formed  of  these  warped  membranes  was 
lengthened.  The  skin  of  these  animals  was  insensibly  covered  with 
a  down  of  the  same  color  with  the  skin,  and  this  down  gradually  in- 
creased. The  little  wings  they  had  under  their  belly,  and  which, 
like  their  wings,  helped  them  to  walk  in  the  sea,  became  feet,  and 
served  them  to  walk  on  land.  There  were  also  other  small  changes 
in  their  figure.  The  beak  and  neck  of  some  were  lengthened,  and 
those  of  others  shortened.  The  conformity,  however,  of  the  first 
figure  subsists  in  the  whole,  and  it  will  be  always  easy  to  know  it. 
Examine  all  the  species  of  fowls,  large  and  small,  even  those  of  the 
Indies,  those  which  are  tufted  or  not,  those  whose  feathers  are 
reversed,  such  as  we  see  at  Damietta  —  that  is  to  say,  whose  plu- 
mage runs  from  the  tail  to  the  head  —  and  you  will  find  species 
of  fish  quite  similar,  scaly  or  without  scales.  All  species  of  parrots, 
whose  plumages  are  so  different,  the  rarest  and  the  most  singu- 
lar-marked birds,  are,  conformable  to  fact,  painted  like  them  with 
black,  brown,  gray,  yellow,  green,  red,  violet  color,  and  those  of  gold 
and  azure ;  and  all  this  precisely  in  the  same  parts  where  the  plu- 
mages of  those  birds  are  diversified  in  so  curious  a  manner."  — 
Telliamed,  p.  224,  ed.  1750. 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


39 


from  the  lowest  to  the  highest  form  of  life,  should  be,  in 
some  degree,  a  continuous  chain  ;  that  the  various  classes  of 
existence  should  shade  into  one  another,  so  that  it  often  proves 
a  matter  of  no  little  difficulty  to  point  out  the  exact  line  of 
demarcation  where  one  class  or  family  ends,  and  another 
class  or  family  begins.  The  naturalist  passes  from  the  vege- 
table to  the  animal  tribes,  scarcely  aware,  amid  the  perplex- 
ing forms  of  intermediate  existence,  at  what  point  he  quits 
the  precincts  of  the  one  to  enter  on  those  of  the  other.  All 
the  animal  families  have,  in  like  manner,  their  connecting 
links ;  and  it  is  chiefly  out  of  these  that  writers  such  as  La- 
marck and  Maillet  construct  their  system.  They  confound 
gradation  with  progress.  Geoffrey  Hudson  was  a  very  short 
man,  and  Goliath  of  Gath  a  very  tall  one,  and  the  gradations 
of  the  human  stature  lie  between.  But  gradation  is  not  prog- 
ress ;  and  though  we  find  full-grown  men  of  five  feet,  five 
feet  six  inches,  six  feet,  and  six  feet  and  a  half,  the  fact  gives 
us  no  earnest  whatever  that  the  race  is  rising  in  stature,  and 
that  at  some  future  period  the  average  height  of  the  human 
family  will  be  somewhat  between  ten  and  eleven  feet.  And 
equally  unsolid  is  the  argument,  that  from  a  principle  of  gra- 
dation in  races  wrould  deduce  a  principle  of  progress  in  races. 
The  tall  man  of  six  feet  need  entertain  quite  as  little  hope  of 
rising  into  eleven  feet  as  the  short  man  of  five  ;  nor  has  the 
fish  that  occasionally  flies  any  better  chance  of  passing  into 
a  bird  than  the  fish  that  only  swims. 

Geology  abounds  with  creatures  of  the  intermediate  class  : 
there  are  none  of  its  links  more  numerous  than  its  connect- 
ing links;  and  hence  its  interest,  as  a  field  of  speculation,  to 
the  asscrtors  of  the  transmutation  of  races.  But  there  is  a 
fatal  incompleteness  in  the  evidence,  that  destroys  its  char- 
acter as  such.     It  supplies  in  abundance  those  links  of 


40 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


generic  connection,  which,  as  it  were,  marry  together  dissimilar 
races;  but  it  furnishes  no  genealogical  link  to  show  that  the 
existences  of  one  race  derive  their  lineage  from  the  exist- 
ences of  another.  The  scene  shifts,  as  we  pass  from  forma- 
tion to  formation ;  we  are  introduced  in  each  to  a  new  dra- 
matis persona;  and  there  exist  no  such  proofs  of  their  being 
at  once  different  and  yet  the  same,  as  those  produced  in  the 
Winter's  Tale,  to  show  that  the  grown  shepherdess  of  the  one 
scene  is  identical  with  the  exposed  infant  of  the  scene  that 
went  before.  Nay,  the  reverse  is  well  nigh  as  strikingly  the 
case,  as  if  the  grown  shepherdess  had  been  introduced  into 
the  earlier  scenes  of  the  drama,  and  the  child  into  its  con- 
cluding scenes. 

The  argument  is  a  very  simple  one.  Of  all  the  vertebra- 
ta,  fishes  rank  lowest,  and  in  geological  history  appear  first. 
We  find  their  remains  in  the  Upper  and  Lower  Silurians,  in 
the  Lower,  Middle,  and  Upper  Old  Red  Sandstone,  in  the 
Mountain  Limestone,  and  in  the  Coal  Measures ;  and  in  the 
latter  formation  the  first  reptiles  appear.  Fishes  seem  to 
have  been  the  master  existences  of  two  great  systems,  may- 
hap of  three,  ere  the  age  of  reptiles  began.  Now  fishes  dif- 
fer very  much  among  themselves  :  some  rank  nearly  as  low 
as  worms,  some  nearly  as  high  as  reptiles ;  and  if  fish  could 
have  risen  into  reptiles,  and  reptiles  into  mammalia,  we  would 
necessarily  expect  to  find  lower  orders  of  fish  passing  into 
higher,  and  taking  precedence  of  the  higher  in  their  appear- 
ance in  point  of  time,  just  as  in  the  Winter's  Tale  we  see 
the  infant  preceding  the  adult.  If  such  be  not  the  case  —  if 
fish  made  their  first  appearance,  not  in  their  least  perfect,  but 
in  their  most  perfect  state  —  not  in  their  nearest  approxima- 
tion to  the  worm,  but  in  their  nearest  approximation  to  the  rep- 
tile —  there  is  no  room  for  progression,  and  the  argument 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


41 


falls.  Now  it  is  a  geological  fact,  that  it  is  fish  of  the  higher 
orders  that  appear  first  on  the  stage,  and  that  they  are  found 
to  occupy  exactly  the  same  level  during  the  vast  period  rep- 
resented by  five  succeeding  formations.  There  is  no  pro- 
gression. If  fish  rose  into  reptiles,  it  must  have  been  by 
sudden  transformation  —  it  must  have  been  as  if  a  man  who 
had  stood  still  for  half  a  lifetime  should  bestir  himself  all  at 
once,  and  take  seven  leagues  at  a  stride.  There  is  no  get- 
ting rid  of  miracle  in  the  case  —  there  is  no  alternative  be- 
tween creation  and  metamorphosis.  The  infidel  substitutes 
progression  for  Deity  ;  Geology  robs  him  of  his  god. 

But  no  man  who  enters  the  geological  field  in  quest  of  the 
wonderful,  need  pass  in  pursuit  of  his  object  from  the  true  to 
the  fictitious.  Does  the  reader  remember  how,  in  Milton's 
sublime  figure,  the  body  of  Truth  is  represented  as  hewn  in 
pieces,  and  her  limbs  scattered  over  distant  regions,  and  how 
her  friends  and  disciples  have  to  go  wandering  all  over  the 
world  in  quest  of  them  ?  There  is  surely  something  very 
wonderful  in  the  fact,  that,  in  uniting  the  links  of  the  chain 
of  creation  into  an  unbroken  whole,  we  have  in  like  manner 
to  seek  for  them  all  along  the  scale  of  the  geologist ;  —  some 
we  discover  among  the  tribes  first  annihilated  —  some  among 
the  tribes  that  perished  at  a  later  period  —  some  among  the 
existences  of  the  passing  time.  We  find  the  present  incom- 
plete without  the  past  —  the  recent  without  the  extinct.  There 
are  marvellous  analogies  which  pervade  the  scheme  of  Provi- 
dence, and  unite,  as  it  were,  its  lower  with  its  higher  parts. 
The  perfection  of  the  works  of  Deity  is  a  perfection  entire 
in  its  components ;  and  yet  these  are  not  contemporaneous, 
but  successive  :  it  is  a  perfection  which  includes  the  dead  as 
well  as  the  living,  and  bears  relation,  in  its  completeness,  not 
to  time,  but  to  eternity. 

4  # 


42 


THE   OLD  KED  SANDSTONE. 


We  find  the  organisms  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  supply- 
ing an  important  link,  or,  rather,  series  of  links,  in  the  ichthy- 
ological  scale,  which  are  wanting  in  the  present  creation,  and 
the  absence  of  which  evidently  occasions  a  wide  gap  between 
the  two  grand  divisions  or  series  of  fishes  —  the  bony  and 
the  cartilaginous.  Of  this,  however,  more  anon.  Of  all  the 
organisms  of  the  system,  one  of  the  most  extraordinary,  and 
the  one  in  which  Lamarck  would  have  most  delighted,  is  the 
Pterichthys,  or  winged  fish,  an  ichthyolite  which  the  writer 
had  the  pleasure  of  introducing  to  the  acquaintance  of  geol- 
ogists nearly  three  years  ago,  but  which  he  first  laid  open  to 
the  light  about  seven  years  earlier.  Had  Lamarck  been  the 
discoverer,  he  would  unquestionably  have  held  that  he  had 
caught  a  fish  almost  in  the  act  of  wishing  itself  into  a  bird. 
There  are  wings  which  want  only  feathers,  a  body  which 
seems  to  have  been  as  well  adapted  for  passing  through  the 
air  as  the  water,  and  a  tail  by  which  to  steer.  And  yet  there 
are  none  of  the  fossils  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  which  less 
resemble  any  thing  that  now  exists  than  its  Pterichthys.  I 
fain  wish  I  could  communicate  to  the  reader  the  feeling  with 
which  I  contemplated  my  first-found  specimen.  It  opened 
with  a  single  blow  of  the  hammer  ;  and  there,  on  a  ground 
of  light-colored  limestone,  lay  the  effigy  of  a  creature  fash- 
ioned apparently  out  of  jet,  with  a  body  covered  with  plates, 
two  powerful  looking  arms,  articulated  at  the  shoulders,  a 
head  as  entirely  lost  in  the  trunk  as  that  of  the  ray  or  the 
sun-fish,  and  a  long,  angular  tail.  My  first-formed  idea  re- 
garding it  was,  that  I  had  discovered  a  connecting  link 
between  the  tortoise  and  the  fish  —  the  body  much  resembles 
that  of  a  small  turtle  ;  and  why,  I  asked,  if  one  formation 
gives  us  sauroid  fishes,  may  not  another  give  us  chelonian 
ones  ?   or  if  in  the  Lias*  we  find  the  body  of  the  lizard 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


43 


mounted  on  the  paddles  of  the  whale,  why  not  find  in  the 
Old  Red  Sandstone  the  body  of  the  tortoise  mounted  in  a 
somewhat  similar  manner  ?  The  idea  originated  in  error ; 
but  as  it  was  an  error  which  not  many  naturalists  could  have 
corrected  at  the  time,  it  may  be  deemed  an  excusable  one, 
more  especially  by  such  of  my  readers  as  may  have  seen 
well-preserved  specimens  of  the  creature,  or  who  examine 
the  subjoined  prints.  (Nos.  I.  and  II.)  I  submitted  some  of 
my  specimens  to  Mr.  Murchison,  at  a  time  when  that  gentle- 
man was  engaged  among  the  fossils  of  the  Silurian  System, 
and  employed  on  his  great  work,  which  has  so  largely  served 
to  extend  geological  knowledge  regarding  those  earlier  peri- 
ods in  which  animal  life  first  began.  He  was  much  inter- 
ested in  the  discovery  :  it  furnished  the  geologist  with  addi- 
tional data  by  which  to  regulate  and  construct  his  calculations, 
and  added  a  new  and  very  singular  link  to  the  chain  of 
existence  in  its  relation  to  human  knowledge.  Deferring  to 
Agassiz,  as  the  highest  authority,  he  yet  anticipated  the  de- 
cision of  that  naturalist  regarding  it,  in  almost  every  particu- 
lar. I  had  inquired,  under  the  influence  of  my  first  impres- 
sion, whether  it  might  not  be  considered  as  a  sort  of  interme- 
diate existence  between  the  fish  and  the  chelonian.  He 
stated,  in  reply,  that  he  could  not  deem  it  referrible  to  any 
family  of  reptiles  ;  that,  if  not  a  fish,  it  approached  more 
closely  to  the  Crustacea  than  to  any  other  class ;  and  that  he 
had  little  doubt  Agassiz  would  pronounce  it  to  be  an 
ichthyolite  of  that  ancient  order  to  which  the  Ccjihalaspis 
belongs,  and  which  seems  to  have  formed  a  connecting  link 
between  Crustacea  and  fishes.*    The  specimens  submitted  to 


*  The  aborigines  of  South.  America  deemed  it  wonderful  that  the 
Europeans  who  first  visited  them  should,  without  previous  concert, 


44 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


Mr,  Murchison  were  forwarded  to  Agassiz.  They  were  much 
more  imperfect  than  some  which  I  have  since  disinterred  ; 
and  to  restore  the  entire  animal  from  them  would  require 
powers  such  as  those  possessed  by  Cuvier  in  the  past  age,  and 
by  the  naturalist  of  Neufchatel  in  the  present.  Broken  as 
they  were,  however,  Agassiz  at  once  decided  from  them  that 
the  creature  must  have  been  a  fish. 

I  have  placed  one  of  the  specimens  before  me.  Imagine 
the  figure  of  a  man  rudely  drawn  in  black  on  a  gray  ground, 
the  head  cut  off  at  the  shoulders,  the  arms  spread  at  full,  as 
in  the  attitude  of  swimming,  the  body  rather  long  than  oth- 
erwise, and  narrowing  from  the  chest  downwards,  one  of  the 
legs  cut  away  at  the  hip-joint,  and  the  other,  as  if  to  preserve 
the  balance,  placed  directly  under  the  centre  of  the  figure, 


agree  in  reading  after  the  same  manner  the  same  scrap  of  manuscript, 
and  in  deriving  the  same  piece  of  information  from  it.  The  writer 
experienced  on  this  occasion  a  somewhat  similar  feeling.  His  speci- 
mens seemed  written  in  a  character  cramp  enough  to  suggest 
those  doubts  regarding  original  meaning  which  lead  to  various  read- 
ings ;  but  the  geologist  and  the  naturalist  agreed  in  perusing  them 
after  exactly  the  same  fashion  —  the  one  in  London,  the  other  in 
Neufchatel.  Such  instances  give  confidence  in  the  findings  of  sci- 
ence. The  decision  of  Mr.  Murchison  I  subjoin  in  his  own  words  — 
his  numbers  refer  to  various  specimens  of  Picric/ithys  :  "  As  to  your 
fossils  1,  2,  3,  we  know  nothing  of  them  here,  (London,)  except  that 
they  remind  me  of  the  occipital  fragments  of  some  of  the  Caithness 
fishes.  I  do  not  conceive  they  can  be  referrible  to  any  reptile  ; 
for,  if  not  fishes,  they  more  closely  approach  to  crustaceans  than  to 
any  other  class.  I  conceive,  however,  that  Agassiz  will  pronounce 
them  to  be  fishes,  which,  together  with  the  curious  genus  Ccjj/ialaspis 
of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone,  form  the  connecting  links  between  crusta- 
ceans and  fishes.  Your  specimens  remind  one  in  several  respects  of 
the  Cephalaspis" 


PLATE  1 


LIBRARY 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


45 


which  it  seems  to  support.  Such,  at  a  first  glance,  is  the 
appearance  of  the  fossil.  The  body  was  of  very  considera- 
ble depth,  perhaps  little  less  deep  proportionally  from  back  to 
breast  than  the  body  of  the  tortoise  ;  the  under  part  was  flat ; 
the  upper  rose  towards  the  centre  into  a  roof-like  ridge  ;  and 
both  under  and  upper  were  covered  with  a  strong  armor  of 
bony  plates,  which,  resembling  more  the  plates  of  the  tortoise 
than  those  of  the  crustacean,  received  their  accessions  of 
growth  at  the  edges  or  sutures.  The  plates  on  the  under 
side  are  divided  by  two  lines  of  suture,  which  run,  the  one 
longitudinally  through  the  centre  of  the  body,  the  other  trans- 
versely, also  through  the  centre  ;  and  they  would  cut  one 
another  at  right  angles,  were  there  not  a  lozenge-shaped 
plate  inserted  at  the  point  where  they  would  otherwise  meet. 
There  are  thus  five  plates  on  the  lower  or  belly  part  of  the 
animal.  They  are  all  thickly  tubercled  outside  with  wart-like 
prominences,  (see  Plate  I.,  fig.  4 ; )  the  inner  present  appear- 
ances indicative  of  a  bony  structure.  The  plates  on  the 
upper  side  are  more  numerous  and  more  difficult  to  describe, 
just  as  it  would  be  difficult  to  describe  the  forms  of  the  vari- 
ous stones  which  compose  the  ribbed  and  pointed  roof  of  a 
Gothic  cathedral,  the  arched  ridge  or  hump  of  the  back  re- 
quiring, in  a  somewhat  similar  way,  a  peculiar  form  and 
arrangement  of  plates.  The  apex  of  the  ridge  is  covered 
by  a  strong  hexagonal  plate,  fitted  upon  it  like  a  cap  or  hel- 
met, and  which  nearly  corresponds  in  place  to  the  flat  central 
plate  of  the  under  side.  There  runs  around  it  a  border  of 
variously  formed  plates,  that  diminish  in  size  and  increase  in 
number  towards  the  head,  and  which  are  separated,  like  the 
pieces  of  a  dissected  map,  by  deep  sutures.  They  all  pre- 
sent the  tubercled  surface.  The  eyes  are  placed  in  front,  on 
a  prominence  considerably  lower  than  the  roof-like  ridge  of 


46 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


the  back  ;  the  mouth  seems  to  have  opened,  as  in  many- 
fishes,  in  the  edge  of  the  creature's  snout,  where  a  line  running 
along  the  back  would  bisect  a  line  running  along  the  belly  ; 
but  this  part  is  less  perfectly  shown  by  my  specimens  than 
any  other.  The  two  arms,  or  paddles,  are  placed  so  far  for- 
ward as  to  give  the  body  a  disproportionate  and  decapitated 
appearance.  From  the  shoulder  to  the  elbow,  if  I  may  em- 
ploy the  terms,  there  is  a  swelling,  muscular  appearance,  as 
in  the  human  arm  ;  the  part  below  is  flattened,  so  as  to  re- 
semble the  blade  of  an  oar,  and  terminates  in  a  strong,  sharp 
point.  The  tail  —  the  one  leg  on  which,  as  exhibited  in  one 
of  my  specimens,  the  creature  seems  to  staud  —  is  of  con- 
siderable length,  more  than  equal  to  a  third  of  the  entire  fig- 
ure, and  of  an  angular  form,  the  base  representing  the  part 
attached  to  the  body,  and  the  apex  its  termination.  It  was 
covered  with  small  tubercled,  rhomboidal  plates,  like  scales, 
(see  Plate  L,  fig.  3  ; )  and  where  the  internal  structure  is 
shown,  there  are  appearances  of  a  vertebral  column,  with  rib- 
like processes  standing  out  at  a  sharp  angle.  The  ichthyo- 
lite,  in  my  larger  specimens,  does  not  much  exceed  seven 
inches  in  length  ;  and  I  despatched  one  to  Agassiz,  rather  more 
than  two  years  ago,  whose  extreme  length  did  not  exceed  an 
inch.  Such  is  a  brief,  and,  I  am  afraid,  imperfect  sketch  of 
a  creature  whose  very  type  seems  no  longer  to  exist.  But 
for  the  purposes  of  the  geologist,  the  descriptions  of  the 
graver  far  exceed  those  of  the  pen,  and  the  accompanying 
prints  will  serve  to  supply  all  that  may  be  found  wanting  in 
the  text.  Fig.  1,  in  Plate  I.,  and  fig.  2,  in  Plate  II.,  are  both 
restorations  —  the  first  of  the  upper,  and  the  second  of  the 
under,  part  of  the  creature.  It  may,  however,  encourage 
the  confidence  of  the  naturalist,  who  for  the  first  time  looks 
upon  forms  so  strange,  to  be  informed  that  Plate  I.,  with  its 


UJLTh  U 


OF  Wl 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


47 


two  figures,  was  submitted  to  Agassiz  during  his  recent  brief 
stay  in  Edinburgh,  and  that  he  as  readily  recognized  in  it  the 
species  of  the  two  kinds  which  it  exhibits,  as  he  had  previ- 
ously recognized  the  species  of  the  originals  in  the  limestone. 

Agassiz,  in  the  course  of  his  late  visit  to  Scotland,  found 
six  species  of  the  Pterichthys  *  —  three  of  these,  and  the 
wings  of  a  fourth,  in  the  collection  of  the  writer.  The  dif- 
ferences by  which  they  are  distinguished  may  be  marked  by 
even  an  unpractised  eye,  especially  in  the  form  of  the  bodies 
and  wings.  Some  are  of  a  fuller,  some  of  a  more  elongated, 
form  ;  in  some  the  body  resembles  a  heraldic  shield,  of  near- 
ly the  ordinary  shape  and  proportions  ;  in  others  the  shield 
stretches  into  a  form  not  very  unlike  that  of  a  Norway  skiff, 
from  the  midships  forward.  In  some  of  the  varieties,  too,  the 
wings  are  long  and  comparatively  slender  ;  in  others  shorter, 
and  of  greater  breadth  :  in  some  there  is  an  inflection  resem- 
bling the  bend  of  an  elbow  ;  in  others  there  is  a  continuous 
swelling  from  the  termination  to  the  shoulder,  where  a  sudden 
narrowing  takes  place  immediately  over  the  articulation.  I 
had  inferred  somewhat  too  hurriedly,  though  perhaps  naturally 
enough,  that  these  wings,  or  arms,  with  their  strong  sharp 
points  and  oar-like  blades,  had  been  at  once  paddles  and 
spears  —  instruments  of  motion  and  weapons  of  defence  ; 
and  hence  the  mistake  of  connecting  the  creature  with  the 
Chelonia.  I  am  informed  by  Agassiz,  however,  that  they 
were  weapons  of  defence  only,  which,  like  the  occipital  spines 
of  the  river  bull-head,  were  erected  in  moments  of  danger  or 

*  Agassiz  now  reckons  ten  distinct  species  of  Pterichthys  — ■  P.  are- 
natus,  P.  cancriformis,  P.  cornutus,  P.  major,  P.  Milleri,  P.  latus,  P. 
oblongus,  P.  productits,  P.  tcstudinarius,  and  P.  hydrophilus ;  of  these, 
nine  species  belong  to  the  Lower,  and  one  —  the  Pterichthys  Jiydrophi- 
lus—  to  the  Upper  Old  Red  Sandstone. 


48 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


alarm,  and  at  other  times  lay  close  by  the  creature's  side ; 
and  that  the  sole  instrument  of  motion  was  the  tail,  which, 
when  covered  by  its  coat  of  scales,  was  proportionally  of  a 
somewhat  larger  size  than  the  tail  shown  in  the  print,  which, 
as  in  the  specimens  from  whence  it  was  taken,  exhibits  but  the 
obscure  and  uncertain  lineaments  of  the  skeleton.  The  river 
bull-head,  when  attacked  by  an  enemy,  or  immediately  as  it 
feels  the  hook  in  its  jaws,  erects  its  two  spines  at  nearly  right 
angles  with  the  plates  of  the  head,  as  if  to  render  itself  as 
difficult  of  being  swallowed  as  possible.  The  attitude  is  one 
of  danger  and  alarm  ;  and  it  is  a  curious  fact,  to  which  I  shall 
afterwards  have  occasion  to  advert,  that  in  this  attitude  nine 
tenths  of  the  Pterichthyes  of  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone 
are  to  be  found.  VVe  read  in  the  stone  a  singularly  preserved 
story  of  the  strong  instinctive  love  of  life,  and  of  the  mingled 
fear  and  anger  implanted  for  its  preservation  —  "  The  champi- 
ons in  distorted  postures  threat."  It  presents  us,  too,  with  a 
wonderful  record  of  violent  death  falling  at  once,  not  on  a  few 
individuals,  but  on  whole  tribes. 

Next  to  the  Ptericlitliys  of  the  Lower  Old  Red  I  shall  place 
its  contemporary  the  Coccosteus  of  Agassiz,  a  fish  which,  in 
some  respects,  must  have  somewhat  resembled  it.  Both  were 
covered  with  an  armor  of  thickly  tubercled  bony  plates,  and 
both  furnished  with  a  vertebrated  tail.  The  plates  of  the  one, 
when  found  lying  detached  in  the  rock,  can  scarcely  be  dis- 
tinguished from  those  of  the  other  :  there  are  the  same  marks, 
as  in  the  plates  of  the  tortoise,  of  accessions  of  growth  at  the 
edges  —  the  same  cancellated  bony  structure  within,  tne  same 
kind  of  tubercles  without.  The  forms  of  the  creatures  them- 
selves, however,  were  essentially  different.  I  have  compared 
the  figure  of  the  Ptericlitliys,  as  shown  in  some  of  my  better 
specimens,  to  that  of  a  man  with  the  head  cut  off  at  the 


PLATE  III 


it 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


49 


shoulders,  one  of  the  legs  also  wanting,  and  the  arms  spread 
to  the  full.  The  figure  of  the  Coccosteus  I  would  compare 
to  a  boy's  kite.  (See  Plate  III.,  fig.  1.)  There  is  a  rounded 
head,  a  triangular  body,  a  long  tail  attached  to  the  apex  of 
the  triangle,  and  arms  thin  and  rounded  where  they  attach  to 
the  body,  and  spreading  out  towards  their  termination  like 
the  ancient  one-sided  shovel  which  we  see  sculptured  on  old 
tombstones,  or  the  rudder  of  an  ancient  galley.*  The 
manner  in  which  the  plates  are  arranged  on  the  head  is 
peculiarly  beautiful  ;  but  I  am  afraid  I  cannot  adequately 
describe  them.  A  ring  of  plates,  like  the  ring-stones  of  an 
arch,  runs  along  what  may  be  called  the  hoop  of  the  kite ; 
the  form  of  the  keystone-plate  is  perfect ;  the  shapes  of  the 
others  are  elegantly  varied,  as  if  for  ornament ;  and  what 
would  be  otherwise  the  opening  of  the  arch,  is  filled  up  with 
one  large  plate,  of  an  outline  singularly  elegant.  A  single 
plate,  still  larger  than  any  of  the  others,  covers  the  greater 
part  of  the  creature's  triangular  body,  to  the  shape  of  which 
it  nearly  conforms.  It  rises  saddle-wise  towards  the  centre  : 
on  the  ridge  there  is  a  longitudinal  groove  ending  in  a  perfo- 
ration, a  little  over  the  apex,  (Plate  III.,  fig.  2 ;)  two  small  lat- 
eral plates  on  either  side  fill  up  the  base  of  the  angle  ;  and 
the  long  tail,  with  its  numerous  vertebral  joints,  terminates  the 
figure. 

Does  the  reader  possess  a  copy  of  Lyell's  lately  published 
elementary  work,  edition  1838  ?  If  so,  let  him  first  turn  up 
the  description  of  the  Upper  Silurian  rocks,  from  Murchison, 
which  occurs  in  page  459,  and  mark  the  form  of  the  trilobite 
Asaphus  caudatus,  a  fossil  of  the  Wenlock  formation.  (See 


*  I  have  since  ascertained  that  these  seeming  arms  or  paddles  were 
simply  plates  of  a  peculiar  form. 
5 


50 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


Sil.  &?/s£.,  Plate  VII.)  The  upper  part,  or  head, forms  a  cres- 
cent ;  the  body  rises  out  of  the  concave  with  a  sweep  some- 
what resembling  that  of  a  Gothic  arch  ;  the  outline  of  the 
whole  approximates  to  that  of  an  egg,  the  smaller  end  termi- 
nating in  a  sharp  point.  Let  him  remark,  further,  that  this 
creature  was  a  crustaceous  animal,  of  the  crab  or  lobster 
class,  and  then  turn  up  the  brief  description  of  the  Old  Red 
Sandstone  in  the  same  volume,  page  454,  and  mark  the  form 
of  the  Cephalaspis,  or  buckler-head  —  a  fish  of  a  formation 
immediately  over  that  in  which  the  remains  of  the  trilobite 
most  abound.  He  will  find  that  the  fish  and  the  crustacean 
are  wonderfully  alike.  The  fish  is  more  elongated,  but  both 
possess  the  crescent-shaped  head,  and  both  the  angular  and 
apparently  jointed  body.*  They  illustrate  admirably  how 
two  distinct  orders  may  meet.  They  exhibit  the  points,  if  I 
may  so  speak,  at  which  the  plated  fish  is  linked  to  the  shelled 
crustacean.  Now,  the  Coccosteus  is  a  stage  further  on  ;  it  is 
more  unequivocally  a  fish.  It  is  a  Cephalaspis  with  an  artic- 
ulated tail  attached  to  the  angular  body,  and  the  horns  of  the 
crescent-shaped  head  cut  off. 

Some  of  the  specimens  which  exhibit  this  creature  are 


*  Really  jointed  in  the  case  of  the  trilobite  ;  only  apparently  so  in 
that  of  the  Cephalaspis.  The  body  of  the  trilobite,  like  that  of  the 
lobster,  was  barred  by  transverse,  oblong,  overlapping  plates,  and  be- 
tween every  two  plates  there  was  a  joint ;  the  body  of  the  Cephalaspis, 
in  like  manner,  was  barred  by  transverse,  oblong,  overlapping  scales, 
between  which  there  existed  no  such  joints.  It  is  interesting  to  ob- 
serve how  nature,  in  thus  bringing  two  such  different  classes  as  fishes 
and  Crustacea  together,  gives  to  the  higher  animal  a  sort  of  pictorial 
resemblance  to  the  lower,  in  parts  where  the  construction  could  not 
be  identical  without  interfering  with  the  grand  distinctions  of  the 
classes. 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


51 


exceedingly  curious.  In  one,  a  coprolite  still  rests  in  the  ab- 
domen ;  and  a  common  botanist's  microscope  shows  it  thickly 
speckled  over  with  minute  scales,  the  indigestible  exuviae  of 
fish  on  which  the  animal  had  preyed.  In  the  abdomen  of 
another  we  find  a  few  minute  pebbles  —  just  as  pebbles  are 
occasionally  found  in  the  stomach  of  the  cod  —  which  had 
been  swallowed  by  the  creature  attached  to  its  food.  Is  there 
nothing  wonderful  in  the  fact,  that  men  should  be  learning  at 
this  time  of  day  how  the  fishes  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone 
lived,  and  that  there  were  some  of  them  rapacious  enough 
not  to  be  over  nice  in  their  eating  ? 

The  under  part  of  the  creature  is  still  very  imperfectly 
known  :  it  had  its  central  lozenge-shaped  plate,  like  that  on 
the  under  side  of  the  Pterichthys,  but  of  greater  elegance, 
(see  Plate  III.,  fig.  3,)  round  which  the  other  plates  were 
ranged.  "  What  an  appropriate  ornament,  if  set  in  gold  !  " 
said  Dr.  Buckland,  on  seeing  a  very  beautiful  specimen  of 
this  central  lozenge  in  the  interesting  collection  of  Professor 
Traill  of  Edinburgh,  —  "  What  an  appropriate  ornament  for  a 
lady  geologist !  "  There  are  two  marked  peculiarities  in  the 
jaws  of  the  Coccosteus,  as  shown  in  most  of  the  specimens, 
illustrative  of  the  lower  part  of  the  creature,  which  I  have 
yet  seen.  The  teeth,  instead  of  being  fixed  in  sockets, 
like  those  of  quadrupeds  and  reptiles,  or  merely  placed 
on  the  bone,  like  those  of  fish  of  the  common  varieties,  seem 
to  have  been  cut  out  of  the  solid,  like  the  teeth  of  a  saw 
or  the  teeth  in  the  mandibles  of  the  beetle,  or  in  the  nippers 
of  the  lobster,  (Plate  III.,  fig.  4  ;)  and  there  appears  to  have 
been  something  strangely  anomalous  in  the  position  of  the 
jaws  —  something  too  anomalous,  perhaps,  to  be  regarded  as 
proven  by  the  evidence  of  the  specimens  yet  found,  but  which 
may  be  mentioned  with  the  view  of  directing  attention  to  it. 


52 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


"  Do  not  be  deterred,"  said  Agassiz,  in  the  course  of  one  of 
the  interviews  in  which  he  obligingly  indulged  the  writer  of 
these  chapters,  who  had  mentioned  to  him  that  one  of  his 
opinions,  just  confirmed  by  the  naturalist,  had  seemed  so 
extraordinary  that  he  had  been  almost  afraid  to  communicate 
it,  —  "  Do  not  be  deterred,  if  you  have  examined  minutely, 
by  any  dread  of  being  deemed  extravagant.  The  possibili- 
ties of  existence  run  so  deeply  into  the  extravagant,  that  there 
is  scarcely  any  conception  too  extraordinary  for  nature  to  real- 
ize." In  all  the  more  complete  specimens  which  I  have  yet 
seen,  the  position  of  the  jaws  is  vertical,  not  horizontal ;  and 
yet  the  creature,  as  shown  by  the  tail,  belonged  unquestion- 
ably to  the  vertebrata.  Now,  though  the  mouths  of  the  crusta- 
ceous  animals,  such  as  the  crab  and  lobster,  open  vertically, 
and  a  similar  arrangement  obtains  among  the  insect  tribes,  it 
has  been  remarked  by  naturalists,  as  an  invariable  condition 
of  that  higher  order  of  animals  distinguished  by  vertebral 
columns,  that  their  mouths  open  horizontally.  What  I  would 
remark  as  very  extraordinary  in  the  Coccosieus  —  not,  how- 
ever, in  the  way  of  directly  asserting  the  fact,  but  merely  by 
way  of  soliciting  inquiry  regarding  it  —  is,  that  it  seems  to 
unite  to  a  vertebral  column  a  vertical  mouth,  thus  forming  a 
connecting  link  between  two  orders  of  existences,  by  con- 
joining what  is  at  once  their  most  characteristic  and  most  dis- 
similar traits.* 


*  These  statements  regarding  the  character  of  the  teeth  and  the 
position  of  the  jaws  of  the  Coccosteus  have  been  challenged  by  very  high 
authorities.  I  retain  them,  however,  in  this  edition  in  their  original 
form,  as  first  made  nearly  six  years  ago.  In  at  least  two  of  my  speci- 
mens of  Coccosteus  the  teeth  and  jaw  form  unequivocally  but  one  bone  — 
a  result,  it  is  not  improbable,  of  some  after  anchylosing  process,  but 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


53 


I  am  acquainted  with  four  species  of  Coccosteus —  C.  deci- 
piens,  C.  cuspidatas,  C.  oblongus,  and  a  variety  not  yet  named  ; 
and  many  more  species  may  yet  be  discovered. *  Of  all  the 
existences  of  the  formation,  this  curious  fish  seems  to  have 
been  one  of  the  most  abundant.  In  a  few  square  yards  of 
rock  I  have  laid  open  portions  of  the  remains  of  a  dozen  dif- 
ferent individuals  belonging  to  two  of  the  four  species,  the  C. 
decipiens  and  C.  cuspidatus,  in  the  course  of  a  single  evening. 
None  of  the  other  kinds  have  yet  been  found  at  Cromarty. 


which  still  solicits  inquiry  as  not  yet  definitely  accounted  for.  The 
mattor  of  fact  in  the  case  is  certainly  one  which  should  be  determined, 
not  analogically,  but  on  its  own  proper  evidence,  as  furnished  by  good 
specimens.  As  for  the  remark  regarding  the  probable  position  of  the 
creature's  jaws,  it  was  ventured  on  at  first,  as  the  reader  may  perceive, 
with  much  hesitation,  and  must  now  be  regarded  as  more  doubtful 
than  ever.  Its  repetition  here,  however,  will,  I  trust,  be  regarded  as 
simply  indicative  of  a  wish  on  the  part  of  the  writer,  that  the  ques- 
tion be  kept  open  just  a  little  longer,  and  that  further  examination  be 
made.  There  is  certainly  something  very  peculiar  about  the  mouth 
of  the  Coccosteus  not  yet  understood,  and  singularly  formed  plates, 
connected  with  it,  which  have  not  been  introduced  into  any  restora- 
tion, and  the  use  of  which  in  the  economy  of  the  animal  seem  wholly 
unknown.  [1850-  —  I  have  at  length  found  a  very  perfect  specimen 
of  the  nether  jaw  of  Coccosteus,  and  am  prepared  to  show  that  it  was 
of  a  character  altogether  unique.  It  had  its  two  groups  of  from  six 
to  eight  teeth,  (exactly  where,  in  the  human  subject,  the  molars  are 
placed,)  that  seem  to  have  acted  on  corresponding  groups  in  the  inter- 
msLxiUaries,  and  two  other  groups  of  from  three  to  five  teeth  placed  at 
right  angles  with  these,  direct  in  the  symphysis,  and  that  seem  to 
have  acted  on  each  other.  But  though  these  unique  teeth  of  the 
symphysis  formed  a  vertical  line  of  mouth,  it  joined  on  at  right  angles 
to  a  transverse  line  of  the  ordinary  type,  as  the  upright  stroke  of  the 
letter  T  joins  on  to  the  horizontal  line  a-top.]  Fourth  Edition. 
*  A  fifth  species  has  been  named  C.  ?naximus. 


54 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


These  two  differed  from  each  other  in  the  proportions  which 
their  general  bulk  bore  to  their  length  —  slightly,  too,  in  the 
arrangement  of  their  occipital  plates.  The  Coccosteus  latus, 
as  the  name  implies,  must  have  been  by  much  a  massier  fish 
than  the  other  ;  and  we  find  the  arch-like  form  of  the  plates 
which  covered  its  head  more  complete  :  the  plate  representing 
the  keystone  rests  on  the  saddle-shaped  plate  in  the  centre, 
and  the  plates  representing  the  spring-stones  of  the  arch  exhibit 
a  broader  base.  The  accompanying  print  (Plate  III.)  repre- 
ents  the  Coccosteus  cuspidatus.  The  average  length  of  the 
creature,  including  the  tail,  as  shown  in  most  of  the  Cromarty 
specimens,  somewhat  exceeded  a  foot.  A  few  detached 
plates  from  Orkney,  in  the  collection  of  Dr.  Traill,  must 
have  belonged  to  an  individual  of  fully  twice  that  length. 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


55 


CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Elfin-fish  of  Gawin  Douglas.  —  The  Fish  of  the  Old  Red  Sand- 
stone scarcely  less  curious.  —  Place  which  they  occupied  indicated 
in  the  present  Creation  by  a  mere  Gap.  —  Fish  divided  into  two 
great  Series,  the  Osseous  and  Cartilaginous. — Their  distinctive 
Peculiarities.  —  Geological  Illustration  of  Dr.  Johnson's  shrewd 
Objection  to  the  Theory  of  Soame  Jenyns.  —  Proofs  of  the  inter- 
mediate Character  of  the  Ichthyolites  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone. 

—  Appearances  which  first  led  the  Writer  to  deem  it  intermediate. 

—  Confirmation  by  Agassiz.  —  The  Osteolepis.  —  Order  to  which  this 
Ichthyolite  belonged.  —  Description.  —  Dipterus.  —  Diplopterus.  — 
Cheirolepis.  —  Glyptolepis. 

Has  the  reader  ever  heard  of  the  "  griesly  fisch  "  and  the 
"  laithlie  flood,"  described  by  that  minstrel  Bishop  of  Dunkeld 
"  who  gave  rude  Scotland  Virgil's  page  ?  "  Both  fish  and 
flood  are  the  extravagances  of  a  poet's  dream.  The  flood 
came  rolling  through  a  wilderness  of  bogs  and  quagmires, 
under  banks  "  dark  as  rocks  the  whilk  the  sey  upcast."  A 
skeleton  forest  stretched  around,  doddered  and  leafless ;  and 
through  the  "  unblomit "  and  <4  barrant  "  trees 

"  The  quhissling  wind  blew  mony  bitter  blast ;  " 

the  'whitened  branches  "  clashed  and  clattered  ;  "  the  "  vile 
water  rinnando'erheid,"  and 44  routing  as  thonder,"  made  "  hid- 
eous trubil ; "  and  to  augment  the  uproar,  the  "  griesly  fisch," 
like  the  fish  of  eastern  story,  raised  their  heads  amid  the  foam, 
and  shrieked  and  yelled  as  they  passed.  "  The  grim  monsters 
fordeafit  the  heiring  with  their  sellouts  ;  "  —  they  were  both 
fish  and  elves,  and  strangely  noisy  in  the  latter  capacity  ;  and 
the  longer  the  poet  listened,  the  more  frightened  he  became. 


56 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


The  description  concludes,  like  a  terrific  dream,  with  his  wan- 
derings through  the  labyrinths  of  the  dead  forest,  where  all 
was  dry  and  sapless  above,  and  mud  and  marsh  below,  and 
with  his  exclamations  of  grief  and  terror  at  finding  himself 
hopelessly  lost  in  a  scene  of  prodigies  and  evil  spirits.  And 
such  was  one  of  the  wilder  fancies  in  which  a  youthful  Scot- 
tish poet  of  the  days  of  Flodden  indulged,  ere  taste  had  arisen 
to  restrain  and  regulate  invention. 

Shall  I  venture  to  say,  that  the  ichthyolites  of  the  Old  Red 
Sandstone  have  sometimes  reminded  me  of  the  "  fisch  of  the 
laithlie  flood  ?  "  They  were  hardly  less  curious.  We  find 
them  surrounded,  like  these,  by  a  wilderness  of  dead  vegeta- 
tion, and  of  rocks  upcast  from  the  sea  ;  and  there  are  the 
footprints  of  storm  and  tempest  around  and  under  them. 
True,  they  must  have  been  less  noisy.  Like  the  "  griesly 
fisch, "  however,  they  exhibit  a  strange  union  of  opposite 
natures.  One  of  their  families  —  that  of  the  Cejjlialaspis  — 
seems  almost  to  constitute  a  connecting  link,  says  Agassiz, 
between  fishes  and  crustaceans.  They  had,  also,  their  fami- 
lies of  sauroid,  or  reptile  fishes  —  and  their  still  more  numer- 
ous families  that  unite  the  cartilaginous  fishes  to  the  osseous. 
And  to  these  last  the  explorer  of  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sand- 
stone finds  himself  mainly  restricted.  The  links  of  the 
system  are  all  connecting  links,  separated  by  untold  ages 
from  that  which  they  connect  ;  so  that,  in  searching  for  their 
representatives  amid  the  existences  of  the  present  time,  we 
find  but  the  gaps  which  they  should  have  occupied.  And  it 
is  essentially  necessary  from  this  circumstance,  in  acquaint- 
ing one1s  self  with  their  peculiarities,  to  examine,  if  I  may  so 
express  myself,  the  sides  of  these  gaps,  —  the  existing  links 
at  both  ends  to  which  the  broken  links  should  have  pieced, 
—  in  short,  all  those  more  striking  peculiarities  of  the  exist- 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


57 


ing  disparted  families  which  we  find  united  in  the  inter- 
mediate families  that  no  longer  exist.  Without  some  such 
preparation,  the  inquirer  would  inevitably  share  the  fate  of 
the  poetical  dreamer  of  Dunkeld,  by  losing  his  way  in  a  laby- 
rinth. In  passing,  therefore,  with  this  object  from  the  ex- 
tinct to  the  recent,  I  venture  to  solicit,  for  a  few  paragraphs, 
the  attention  of  the  reader. 

Fishes,  the  fourth  great  class  in  point  of  rank  in  the  ani- 
mal kingdom,  and,  in  extent  of  territory,  decidedly  the  first, 
are  divided,  as  they  exist  in  the  present  creation,  into  two  dis- 
tinct series  —  the  osseous  and  the  cartilaginous.  The  osseous 
embraces  that  vast  assemblage  which  naturalists  describe  as 
"fishes  properly  so  called,"  and  whose  skeletons,  like  those 
of  mammalia,  birds,  and  reptiles,  are  composed  chiefly  of  a 
calcareous  earth  pervading  an  organic  base.  Hence  the  du- 
rability of  their  remains.  In  the  cartilaginous  series,  on  the 
contrary,  the  skeleton  contains  scarce  any  of  this  earth  :  it  is 
a  framework  of  indurated  animal  matter,  elastic,  semi-trans- 
parent, yielding  easily  to  the  knife,  and,  like  all  mere  animal 
substances,  inevitably  subject  to  decay.  I  have  seen  the 
huge  cartilaginous  skeleton  of  a  shark  lost  in  a  mass  of  pu- 
trefaction in  less  than  a  fortnight.  I  have  found  the  minutest 
bones  of  the  osseous  ichthyolites  of  the  Lias  entire  after  the 
lapse  of  unnumbered  centuries. 

The  two  series  do  not  seem  to  precede  or  follow  one 
another  in  any  such  natural  sequence  as  that  in  which  the 
great  classes  of  the  animal  kingdom  are  arranged.  The 
mammifer  takes  precedence  of  the  bird,  the  bird  of  the  rep- 
tile, the  reptile  of  the  fish  ;  there  is  progression  in  the  scale 
—  the  arrangement  of  the  classes  is  consecutive,  not  paral- 
lel. But  in  this  great  division  there  is  no  such  progression ; 
the  osseous  fish  takes  no  precedence  of  the  cartilaginous  fish, 


58 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


or  the  cartilaginous,  as  a  series,  of  the  osseous.  The  ar- 
rangement is  parallel,  not  consecutive ;  but  the  parallelism, 
if  I  may  so  express  myself,  seems  to  be  that  of  a  longer  with 
a  shorter  line  ;  —  the  cartilaginous  fishes,  though  much  less 
numerous  in  their  orders  and  families  than  the  other,  stretch  far- 
ther along  the  scale  in  opposite  directions,  at  once  rising  higher 
and  sinking  lower  than  the  osseous  fishes.  The  cartilaginous 
order  of  the  sturgeons, —  a  roe-depositing  tribe,  devoid  alike  of 
affection  for  their  young,  or  of  those  attachments  which  give 
the  wild  beasts  of  the  forest  partners  in  their  dens,  —  may  be 
regarded  as  fully  abreast  of  by  much  the  greater  part  of  the 
osseous  fishes,  in  both  their  instincts  and  their  organization. 
The  family  of  the  sharks,  on  the  other  hand,  and  some  of 
the  rays,  rise  higher,  as  if  to  connect  the  class  of  fish  with 
the  class  immediately  above  it  —  that  of  reptiles.  Many  of 
them  are  viviparous,  like  the  mammalia  —  attached,  it  is 
said,  to  their  young,  and  fully  equal  even  to  birds  in  the 
strength  of  their  connubial  attachments.  The  male,  in  some 
instances,  has  been  known  to  pine  away  and  die  when  de- 
prived of  his  female  companion.*  But  then,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  cartilaginous  fishes,  in  some  of  their  tribes,  sink  as 
low  beneath  the  osseous  as  they  rise  above  them  in  others. 
The  suckers,  for  instance,  a  cartilaginous  family,  are  the  most 
imperfect  of  all  vertebral  animals;  some  of  them  want  even 


*  Some  of  the  osseous  fishes  are  also  viviparous  —  the  "  viviparous 
blenny,"  for  instance.  The  evidenoe  from  which  the  supposed  affec- 
tion of  the  higher  fishes  for  their  offspring  has  been  inferred,  is,  I 
am  afraid,  of  a  somewhat  equivocal  character.  The  love  of  the  sow 
for  her  litter  hovers,  at  times,  between  that  of  the  parent  and  that  of 
the  epicure  ;  nor  have  we  proof  enough,  in  the  present  state  of  ich- 
thyological  knowledge,  to  conclude  to  which  side  the  parental  love 
of  the  fish  inclines.    The  connubial  affections  of  some  of  the  higher 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE.  59 

the  sense  of  sight ;  they  seem  mere  worms,  furnished  with 
fins  and  gills,  and  were  so  classed  by  Linnscus  ;  but  though 
now  ascertained  to  be  in  reality  fishes,  they  must  be  regarded 
as  the  lowest  link  in  the  scale  —  as  connecting  the  class  with 
the  class  Vermes,  just  as  the  superior  cartilaginous  fishes  may 
be  regarded  as  connecting  it  with  the  class  Reptilia. 

Between  the  osseous  and  the  cartilaginous  fishes  there  ex- 
ist some  very  striking  dissimilarities.  The  skull  of  the  osse- 
ous fish  is  divided  into  a  greater  number  of  distinct  bones, 
and  possesses  more  movable  parts,  than  the  skulls  of  mam- 
miferous  animals  :  the  skull  of  the  cartilaginous  fish,  on  the 
contrary,  consists  of  but  a  single  piece,  without  joint  or  sut- 
ure. There  is  another  marked  distinction.  The  bony  fish, 
if  it  approaches  in  form  to  that  general  type  which  we  recog- 
nize amid  all  the  varieties  of  the  class  as  proper  to  fishes, 
and  to  which,  in  all  their  families,  nature  is  continually  in- 
clining, will  be  found  to  have  a  tail  brandling  out,  as  in  the 
perch  and  herring,  from  the  bone  in  which  the  vertebral  col- 
umn terminates ;  whereas  the  cartilaginous  fish,  if  it  also 
approach  the  general  type,  will  be  found  to  have  a  tail 
formed,  as  in  the  sturgeon  and  dog-fish,  on  both  sides  of  the 
hinder  portion  of  the  spine,  but  developed  much  more  largely 
on  the  under  than  on  the  upper  side.  In  some  instances,  it 
is  wanting  on  the  upper  side  altogether.  It  may  be  as  im- 
possible to  assign  reasons  for  such  relations  as  for  those 


families  seem  better  established.  Of  a  pair  of  gigantic  rays  (Ccpha- 
loptera  giorna)  taken  in  the  Mediterranean,  and  described  by  Risso, 
the  female  was  captured  by  some  fishermen ;  and  the  male  continued 
constantly  about  the  boat,  as  if  bewailing  the  fate  of  his  companion, 
and  was  then  found  floating  dead.  —  See  Wilson's  article  Ichthyolo- 
gy, Encyc.  Brit,,  seventh  edition. 


60  THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 

which  exist  between  the  digestive  organs  and  the  hoofs  of  the 
ruminant  animals;  bat  it  is  of  importance  that  they  should 
be  noted. *  It  may  be  remarked,  further,  that  the  great  bulk 
of  fishes  whose  skeletons  consist  of  cartilage  have  yet  an 
ability  of  secreting  the  calcareous  earth  which  composes  bone, 
and  that  they  are  furnished  with  bony  coverings,  either  par- 
tial or  entire.  Their  bones  lie  outside.  The  thorn-back  de- 
rives its  name  from  the  multitudinous  hooks  and  spikes  of 
bone  that  bristle  over  its  body ;  the  head,  back,  and  opercu- 
lum of  the  sturgeon  are  covered  with  bony  plates;  the  thorns 
and  prickles  of  the  shark  are  composed  of  the  same  mate- 
rial. The  framework  within  is  a  framework  of  mere  animal 
matter ;  but  it  was  no  lack  of  the  osseous  ingredient  that  led 
to  the  arrangement  —  an  arrangement  which  we  can  alone 
refer  to  the  will  of  that  all-potent  Creator,  who  can  transpose 
his  materials  at  pleasure,  without  interfering  with  the  perfec- 
tion of  his  work.  It  is  a  curious  enough  circumstance,  that 
some  of  the  osseous  fishes,  as  if  entirely  to  reverse  the  con- 
dition of  the  cartilaginous  ones,  are  partially  covered  with 


*  Dr.  Buckland,  in  his  Bridgeivatcr  Treatise,  assigns  satisfactory 
reasons  for  this  construction  of  tail  in  sharks  and  sturgeons.  Of  the 
fishes  of  these  two  orders,  he  states,  "  the  former  perform  the  office 
of  scavengers,  to  clear  the  water  of  impurities,  and  have  no  teeth, 
but  feed,  by  means  of  a  soft,  leather-like  mouth,  capable  of  protru- 
sion and  contraction,  on  putrid  vegetables  and  animal  substances  at 
the  bottom ;  and  hence  they  have  constantly  to  keep  their  bodies  in 
an  inclined  position.  The  sharks  employ  their  tail  in  another  pecu- 
liar manner  —  to  turn  their  body,  in  order  to  bring  their  mouth, 
which  is  placed  downwards  beneath  the  head,  into  contact  with  their 
prey.  We  find  an  important  provision  in  every  animal,  to  give  a  po- 
sition of  ease  and  activity  to  the  head  during  the  operation  of  feed- 
ing." —  Bridgewater  Treatise,  p.  279,  vol.  i.,  first  ed. 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


plates  of  cartilage.  They  are  bone  within,  and  cartilage 
without,  just  as  others  are  bone  without  and  cartilage 
within. 

But  how  apply  all  this  to  the  Geology  of  the  Old  Red 
Sandstone  ?  Very  directly.  The  ichthyolites  of  this  ancient 
formation  hold,  as  has  been  said,  an  intermediate  place,  un- 
occupied among  present  existences,  between  the  two  series, 
and  in  some  respects  resemble  the  osseous,  and  in  some  the 
cartilaginous  tribes.  The  fact  reminds  one  of  Dr.  Johnson's 
shrewd  objection  to  the  theory  embraced  by  Soame  Jenyns 
in  his  Free  Inquiry,  and  which  was  the  theory  also  of  Pope 
and  Bolingbroke.  The  metaphysician  held,  with  the  poet 
and  his  friend,  that  there  exists  a  vast  and  finely  graduated 
chain  of  being  from  Infinity  to  nonentity  —  from  God  to 
nothing ;  and  that  to  strike  out  a  single  link  would  be  to  mar 
the  perfection  of  the  whole.*  The  moralist  demonstrated, 
on  the  contrary,  that  this  chain,  in  the  very  nature  of  things, 
must  be  incomplete  at  both  ends  —  that  between  that  which 


*  "  See,  through  this  air,  this  ocean,  and  this  earth, 
All  matter  quick,  and  bursting  into  birth  ; 
Above,  how  high  progressive  life  may  go  ! 
Around,  how  wide  !  how  deep  extend  below  ! 
Yast  chain  of  being  !  which  from  God  began  — 
Nature's  ethereal,  human  angel,  man, 
Beast,  bird,  fish,  insect  —  what  no  eye  can  see, 
No  glass  can  reach ;  from  Infinite  to  thee  — 
From  thee  to  nothing.    On  superior  powers 
"Were  we  to  press,  inferior  might  on  ours  ; 
Or  in  the  full  creation  leave  a  void, 
"Where,  one  step  broken,  the  great  scale's  destroyed : 
From  Nature's  chain,  whatever  link  you  strike, 
Tenth,  or  ten  thousandth,  breaks  the  chain  alike." 

Essay  on  Man. 

6 


G2 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


does,  and  that  which  does  not  exist,  there  must  be  an  infinite 
difference  —  that  the  chain,  therefore,  cannot  lay  hold  on 
nothing.  He  showed,  further,  that  between  the  greatest  of 
finite  existences  and  the  adorable  Infinite  there  must  exist 
another  illimitable  void  —  that  the  boundless  and  the  bounded 
are  as  widely  separated  in  their  natures  and  qualities  as  the 
existent  and  the  non-existent — that  the  chain,  in  short,  can- 
not lay  hold  on  Deity.  He  asserted,  however,  that  not  only 
is  it  thus  incomplete  at  both  ends,  but  that  we  must  regard  it 
as  well  nigh  as  incomplete  in  many  of  its  intermediate  links 
as  at  its  terminal  ones ;  that  it  is  already  a  broken  chain, 
seeing  that  between  its  various  classes  of  existence  myriads 
of  intermediate  existences  might  be  introduced,  by  graduat- 
ing more  minutely  what  must  necessarily  be  capable  of  in- 
finite gradation ;  and  that,  to  base  an  infi.del  theory  on  the 
supposed  completeness  of  what  is  demonstrably  incomplete, 
and  on  the  impossibility  of  a  gap  existing  in  what  is  already 
filled  with  gaps,  is  just  to  base  one  absurdity  on  another.* 


*  The  following  are  the  well-stated  reasonings  of  Dr.  Johnson,  a 
writer  wrho  never  did  injustice  to  an  argument  for  want  of  words  to 
express  it  in  :  — 

"  The  scale  of  existence  from  Infinity  to  nothing  cannot  possibly 
have  being.  The  highest  being  not  infinite  must  be  at  an  infinite  dis- 
tance from  Infinity.  Cheyne,  wrho,  with  the  desire  inherent  in  math- 
ematicians to  reduce  every  thing  to  mathematical  images,  considers 
all  existence  as  a  cone,  allows  that  the  basis  is  at  an  infinite  distance 
from  the  body,  and  in  this  distance  between  finite  and  infinite  there 
will  be  room  forever  for  an  infinite  series  of  indefinable  existence. 

"  Between  the  lowest  positive  existence  and  nothing,  whenever 
we  suppose  positive  existence  to  cease,  is  another  chasm  infinitely 
deep,  where  there  is  room  again  for  endless  orders  of  subordinate  na- 
ture, continued  forever  and  ever,  and  yet  infinitely  superior  to  non- 
existence. 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


63 


Now,  we  find  the  Geology  of  what  may  be  termed  the 
second  age  of  vertebrated  existence  (for  the  Lower  Old  Red 
Sandstone  was  such)  coming  curiously  in  to  confirm  the  rea- 
sonings of  Johnson.  It  shows  us  the  greater  part  of  the  fish 
of  an  entire  creation  thus  insinuated  between  two  of  the 
links  of  our  own. 

It  is  now  several  years  since  I  was  first  led  to  suspect  that 
the  condition  of  the  ichthyolites  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone 
was  intermediate.  I  have  alluded  to  the  comparative  inde- 
structibility of  the  osseous  skeleton,  and  the  extreme  liability 
to  decay  characteristic  of  the  cartilaginous  one.  Of  a  skel- 
eton in  part  osseous  and  in  part  cartilaginous,  we  must,  of 
course,  expect,  when  it  occurs  in  a  fossil  state,  to  find  the  in- 
destructible portions  only.  And  when,  in  every  instance,  we 
find  the  fossil  skeletons  of  a  formation  complete  in  some  of 
their  parts,  and  incomplete  in  others  —  the  entire  portions  in- 


"  To  these  meditations  humanity  is  unequal.  But  yet  we  may  ask, 
not  of  our  Maker,  but  of  each  other,  since  on  the  one  side  creation, 
whenever  it  stops,  must  stop  infinitely  below  infinity,  and  on  the  oth- 
er infinitely  above  nothing,  what  necessity  there  is  that  it  should 
proceed  so  far  either  way  —  that  being  so  high  or  so  low  should  ever 
have  existed.  We  may  ask,  but  I  believe  no  created  wisdom  can 
give  an  adequate  answer. 

"  Nor  is  this  all.  In  the  scale,  wherever  it  begins  or  ends,  are  in- 
finite vacuities.  At  whatever  distance  we  suppose  the  next  order  of 
beings  to  be  above  man,  there  is  room  for  an  intermediate  order  of 
beings  between  them  ;  and  if  for  one  order,  then  for  infinite  orders, 
since  every  thing  that  admits  of  more  or  less,  and  consequently  all 
the  parts  of  that  which  admits  them,  may  be  infinitely  divided ;  so 
that,  as  far  as  we  can  judge,  there  may  be  room  in  the  vacuity  be- 
tween any  two  steps  of  the  scale,  or  between  any  two  points  of  the 
cone  of  being,  for  infinite  exertion  of  infinite  power."  —  Review  of 
"A  Free  Inquiry*' 


64 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


variably  agreeing,  and  the  wanting  portions  invariably  agree- 
ing also —  it  seems  but  natural  to  conclude  that  an  original 
difference  must  have  obtained,  and  that  the  existing  parts, 
which  we  can  at  once  recognize  as  bone,  must  have  been 
united  to  parts  now  wanting,  which  were  composed  of  car- 
tilage. The  naturalist  never  doubts  that  the  shark's  teeth, 
which  he  finds  detached  on  the  shore,  or  buried  in  some  an- 
cient formation,  were  united  originally  to  cartilaginous  jaws. 
Now,  in  breaking  open  all  the  ichthyolites  of  the  Lower  Old 
Red  Sandstone,  with  the  exception  of  those  of  the  two  fami- 
lies already  described,  we  find  that  some  of  the  parts  are  in- 
variably wanting,  however  excellent  the  state  of  preservation 
maintained  by  the  rest.  I  have  seen  every  scale  preserved 
and  in  its  place  —  one  set  of  both  the  larger  and  smaller 
bones  occupying  their  original  position  —  jaws  thickly  set 
with  teeth  still  undetached  from  the  head  —  the  massy  bones 
of  the  skull  still  unseparated  —  the  larger  shoulder-bone,  on 
which  the  operculum  rests,  lying  in  its  proper  bed  —  the  oper- 
culum itself  entire  —  and  all  the  external  rays  which  sup- 
port the  fins,  though  frequently  fine  as  hairs,  spreading  out 
distinct  as  the  fibres  in  the  wing  of  the  dragon-fly,  or  the 
woody  nerves  in  an  oak-leaf.  In  no  case,  however,  have  I 
succeeded  in  finding  a  single  joint  of  the  vertebral  column, 
or  the  trace  of  a  single  internal  ray.  No  part  of  the  internal 
skeleton  survives,  nor  does  its  disappearance  seem  to  have  had 
any  connection  with  the  greater  mass  of  putrescent  matter 
which  must  have  surrounded  it,  seeing  that  the  external  rays 
of  the  fins  show  quite  as  entire  when  turned  over  upon  the 
body,  as  sometimes  occurs,  as  when  spread  out  from  it  in 
profile.  Besides,  in  the  ichthyolites  of  the  chalk,  no  parts 
of  the  skeleton  are  better  preserved  than  the  internal  parts  — 
the  vertebral  joints,  and  the  internal  rays.    The  reader  must 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


65 


have  observed,  in  the  cases  of  a  museum  of  Natural  History, 
preparations  of  fish  of  two  several  kinds  —  preparations  of 
the  skeleton,  in  which  only  the  osseous  parts  are  exhibited, 
and  preparations  of  the  external  form,  in  which  the  whole 
body  is  shown  in  profile,  with  the  fins  spread  to  the  full, 
and  at  least  half  the  bones  of  the  head  covered  by  the  skin 
but  in  which  the  vertebral  column  and  internal  rays  are  want- 
ing. Now,  in  the  fossils  of  the  chalk,  with  those  of  the  other 
later  formations,  down  to  the  New  Red  Sandstone,  we  find  that 
the  skeleton  style  of  preparation  obtains  ;  whereas,  in  at  least 
three  fourths  of  the  ichthyolites  of  the  Lower  Old  Red,  we  find 
only  what  we  may  term  the  external  style.  I  had  marked, 
besides,  another  circumstance  in  the  ichthyolites,  which 
seemed,  like  a  nice  point  of  circumstantial  evidence,  to  give 
testimony  in  the  same  line.  The  tails  of  all  the  ichthyolites, 
whose  vertebral  columns  and  internal  rays  are  wanting,  are 
unequally  lobed,like  those  of  the  dog-fish  and  sturgeon,  (both 
cartilaginous  fishes,)  and  the  body  runs  on  to  nearly  the  ter- 
mination of  the  surrounding  rays.  The  one-sided  condition 
of  tail  exists,  says  Cuvier,  in  no  recent  osseous  fish  known  to 
naturalists,  except  in  the  bony  pike  —  a  sauroid  fish  of  the 
warmer  rivers  of  America.  With  deference,  however,  to  so 
high  an  authority,  it  is  questionable  whether,  the  tail  of  the 
bony  pike  should  not  rather  be  described  as  a  tail  set  on 
somewhat  awry,  than  as  a  one-sided  tail. 

All  these  peculiarities  I  could  but  note  as  they  turned  up  be- 
fore me,  and  express,  in  pointing  them  out  to  a  few  friends,  a 
sort  of  vague,  because  hopeless,  desire,  that  good  fortune 
might  throw  me  in  the  way  of  the  one  man  of  all  the  world 
best  qualified  to  explain  the  principle  on  which  they  occurred, 
and  to  decide  whether  fishes  may  be  at  once  bony  and 
cartilaginous.  But  that  meeting  was  a  contingency  rather  to 
6* 


66 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


be  wished  than  hoped  for  —  a  circumstance  within  the  bounds 
of  the  possible,  but  beyond  those  of  the  probable.  Could 
the  working-man  of  the  north  of  Scotland  have  so  much  as 
dreamed  that  he  was  yet  to  enjoy  an  opportunity  of  compar- 
ing his  observations  with  those  of  the  naturalist  of  Neufchatel, 
and  of  having  his  inferences  tested  and  confirmed  ? 

The  opportunity  did  occur.  The  working-man  did  meet 
with  Agassiz ;  and  many  a  query  had  he  to  put  to  him  ;  and 
never,  surely,  was  inquirer  more  courteously  entreated,  or  his 
doubts  more  satisfactorily  resolved.  The  reply  to  almost  my 
first  question  solved  the  enigma  of  nearly  ten  years1  standing. 
And  finely  characteristic  was  that  reply  of  the  frankness  and 
candor  of  a  great  mind,  that  can  afford  to  make  it  no  secret, 
that,  in  its  onward  advances  on  knowledge,  it  may  know 
to-day  what  it  did  not  know  yesterday,  and  that  it  is  content 
to  "  gain  by  degrees  upon  the  darkness."  "  Had  you  asked 
me  the  question  a  fortnight  ago,"  said  Agassiz,  "  I  could  not 
have  replied  to  it.  Since  then,  however,  I  have  examined 
an  ichthyolite  of  the  Old  Hed  Sandstone  in  which  the  verte- 
bral joints  are  fortunately  impressed  on  the  stone,  though 
the  joints  themselves  have  disappeared,  and  which,  exactly 
resembling  the  vertebra?  of  the  shark,  must  have  been  carti- 
laginous." In  a  subsequent  conversation,  the  writer  was  grati- 
fied by  finding  most  of  his  other  facts  and  inferences  authen- 
ticated and  confirmed  by  those  of  the  naturalist.  I  shall 
attempt  introducing  to  the  reader  the  peculiarities,  general 
and  specific,  of  the  ichthyolites  to  which  these  facts  and  ob- 
servations mainly  referred,  by  describing  such  of  the  families 
as  are  most  abundant  in  the  formation,  and  the  points  in 
which  they  either  resemble  or  differ  from  the  existing  fish  of 
our  seas. 

Of  these  ancient  families,  the  Osteoiejris,  or  bony-scale, 


UMARV 

OF  THE 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


67 


(see  Plate  IV.,  fig.  1,)  may  be  regarded  as  illustrative  of  the 
general  type.  It  was  one  of  the  first  discovered  of  the  Caith- 
ness fishes,  and  received  its  name  in  the  days  of  Cuvier,  from 
the  osseous  character  of  its  scales,  ere  it  was  ascertained  that 
it  had  numerous  contemporaries,  and  that  to  all  and  each  of 
these  the  same  description  applied.  The  scales  of  the  fishes 
of  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone,  like  the  plates  and  detached 
prickles  of  the  purely  cartilaginous  fishes,  were  composed  of 
a  bony,  not  of  a  horny,  substance,  and  were  all  coated  exter- 
nally with  enamel.    The  circumstance  is  one  of  interest. 

Agassiz,  in  his  system  of  classification,  has  divided  fishes 
into  four  orders,  according  to  the  form  of  their  scales  ;  and 
his  principle  of  division,  though  apparently  arbitrary  and 
trivial,  is  yet  found  to  separate  the  class  into  great  natural 
families,  distinguished  from  one  another  by  other  and  very 
striking  peculiarities.  One  kind  of  scale,  for  instance,  the 
placoid  or  broad-plated  scale,  is  found  to  characterize  all  the 
cartilaginous  fishes  of  Cuvier  except  the  sturgeon  ;  —  it  is 
the  characteristic  of  an  otherwise  well-marked  series,  whose 
families  are  furnished  with  skeletons  composed  of  mere  ani- 
mal matter,  and  whose  gills  open  to  the  water  by  spiracles. 
The  fish  of  another  order  are  covered  by  ctenoid  or  comb- 
shaped  scales,  the  posterior  margin  of  each  scale  being  toothed 
somewhat  like  the  edge  of  a  saw  or  comb  ;  and  the  order, 
thus  distinguished,  is  found  wonderfully  to  agree  with  an  order 
formed  previously  on  another  principle  of  classification,  the 
Acanthopterygii,  or  thorny-finned  order  of  Cuvier,  excluding 
only  the  smooth-scaled  families  of  this  previously  formed 
division,  and  including,  in  addition  to  it,  the  flat  fish.  A 
third  order,  the  Cycloidean,  is  marked  by  simple  marginatecl 
scales,  like  those  of  the  cod,  haddock,  whiting,  herring, 
salmon,  &c. ;  and  this  order  is  found  to  embrace  chiefly  the 


68 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


Malacopterygii,  or  soft-finned  order  of  Cuvier  —  an  order  to 
which  all  these  well-known  fish,  with  an  immense  multitude 
of  others,  belong.  Thus  the  results  of  the  principle  of  classi- 
fication adopted  by  Agassiz  wonderfully  agree  with  the  re- 
sults of  the  less  simple  principles  adopted  by  Cuvier  and  the 
other  masters  in  this  department  of  Natural  History.  Now, 
it  is  peculiar  to  yet  a  fourth  order,  the  Ganoidean,  or  shining- 
scaled  order,  that  by  much  the  greater  number  of  the  genera 
which  it  comprises  exist  only  in  the  fossil  state.  At  least 
five  sixths  of  the  whole  were  ascertained  to  be  extinct  several 
years  ago,  at  a  time  when  the  knowledge  of  fossil  Ichthyology 
was  much  more  limited  than  at  present  :  the  proportions  are 
now  found  to  be  immensely  greater  on  the  side  of  the  dead. 
And  this  order  seems  to  have  included  ail  the  semi-osseous, 
semi-cartilaginous  ichthyolites  of  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sand- 
stone :  the  enamelled  scale  is  the  characteristic,  according  to 
Agassiz's  principle  of  classification,  of  the  existences  that 
filled  the  gap  so  often  alluded  to  as  existing  in  the  present 
creation.  All  their  scales  glitter  with  enamel :  they  bore  to 
this  order  the  relation  that  the  cartilaginous  fish  bear  to  the 
Placoidean  order,  the  thorny-finned  fish  to  the  Ctenoidean 
order,  and  the  soft-finned  fish  to  the  Cycloidean  order.  It 
also  included,  with  the  semi-cartilaginous,  the  sauroid  fish  — 
those  master  existences  and  tyrants  of  the  earlier  vertebrata ; 
and  both  classes  find  their  representatives  among  the  com- 
paratively few  ganoid  fishes  of  the  present  creation  ;  the  one 
in  the  sturgeon  family,  which  of  all  existing  families  ap- 
proaches nearest  in  other  respects  to  the  extinct  semi-carti- 
laginous fishes  ;  the  other  in  the  sauroid  genus  Lejjidosteus,  to 
which  the  bony  pike  belongs.  The  head,  back,  and  sides  of 
the  sturgeon  are  defended,  as  has  been  already  remarked,  by 
longitudinal  rows  of  hard  osseous  bosses  —  the  bony  pike  is 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


69 


armed  with  enamelled  osseous  scales,  of  a  stony  hardness.  It 
seems  a  somewhat  curious  circumstance,  that  fishes  so  unlike 
each  other  in  their  internal  framework  should  thus  resemble 
one  another  in  their  bony  coverings,  and  in  some  slight  degree 
in  their  structure  of  tail.  One  of  the  characteristics  of  sau- 
roid  fishes  is  the  extreme  compactness  and  hardness  of  their 
skeleton.* 

It  requires  skill  such  as  that  possessed  by  Agassiz,  to  de- 
termine that  the  uncouth  Coccostens,  or  the  equally  uncouth 
Pterichthys,  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone,  with  their  long  articu- 
lated tails  and  tortoise-like  plates,  were  bona  fide  fishes ; 
but  there  is  no  possibility  of  mistaking  the  Osteolepis :  it  is 
obvious  to  the  least  practised  eye  that  it  must  have  been 
a  fish,  and  a  handsome  one.  Even  a  cursory  examina- 
tion, however,  shows  very  striking  peculiarities,  which  are 
found,  on  further  examination,  to  characterize  not  this  fam- 
ily alone,  but  at  least  one  half  the  contemporary  families 
besides.  We  are  accustomed  to  see  vertebrated  animals 
with  the  bone  uncovered  in  one  part  only,  — -  that  part  the 
teeth,  —  and  with  the  rest  of  the  skeleton  wrapped  up  in  flesh 
and  skin.    Among  the  reptiles,  we  find  a  few  exceptions  ; 

*  "The  sauroid  or  lizard-like  fishes,"  says  Dr.  Buckland,  "  combine 
in  the  structure,  both  of  the  bones  and  some  of  the  soft  parts,  charac- 
ters which  are  common  to  the  class  of  reptiles.  The  bones  of  the 
skull  are  united  by  closer  sutures  than  those  of  common  fishes.  The 
vertebra?  articulate  with  the  spinous  processes  of  sutures,  like  the 
vertebra)  of  saurians ;  the  ribs  also  articulate  with  the  extremities  of 
the  spinous  process.  The  caudal  vertebra)  have  distinct  chevron 
bones,  and  the  general  condition  of  the  skeleton  is  stronger  and  more 
solid  than  in  other  fishes  :  the  air  bladder  also  is  bifid  and  cellular, 
approaching  to  the  character  of  lungs  ;  and  in  the  throat  there  is  a 
glottis,  as  in  sirens  and  salamanders,  and  many  saurians."  —  Note  to 
Bridgewater  Treatise,  p.  274,  first  edit. 


70 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


but  a  creature  with  a  skull  as  naked  as  its  teeth,  —  the  bone 
being  merely  covered,  as  in  these,  by  a  hard,  shining  enamel, 
—  and  with  toes  also  of  bare  enamelled  bone,  would  be 
deemed  an  anomaly  in  creation.  And  yet  such  was  the  con- 
dition of  the  Osteolepis,  and  many  of  its  contemporaries.  The 
enamelled  teeth  were  placed  in  jaws  which  presented  outside 
a  surface  as  naked  and  as  finely  enamelled  as  their  own. 
(See  Plate  IV.,  fig.  5.)  The  entire  head  was  covered  with 
enamelled  osseous  plates,  furnished  inside  like  other  bones,  as 
shown  by  their  cellular  construction,  with  their  nourishing 
bloodvessels,  and  perhaps  their  oil,  and  which  rested  apparent- 
ly on  the  cartilaginous  box,  which  must  have  enclosed  the 
brain,  and  connected  it  with  the  vertebral  column.  I  cannot 
better  illustrate  the  peculiar  condition  of  the  fins  of  this 
ichthyolite  than  by  the  webbed  foot  of  a  water-fowl.  The 
web  or  membrane  in  ali  the  aquatic  birds  with  which  we  are 
acquainted  not  only  connects,  but  also  covers  the  toes.  The 
web  or  membrane  in  the  fins  of  existing  fishes  accomplishes 
a  similar  purpose  ;  it  both  connects  and  covers  the  supporting 
bones  or  rays.  Imagine,  however,  a  webbed  foot  in  which 
the  toes  —  connected,  but  not  covered  —  present,  as  in  skele- 
tons, an  upper  and  under  surface  of  naked  bone  ;  and  a 
very  correct  idea  may  be  formed,  from  such  a  foot,  of  the 
condition  of  fin  which  obtained  among  at  least  one  half  the 
ichthyolites  of  the  Lower  Old  Eed  Sandstone.  The  support- 
ing bones  or  rays  seem  to  have  been  connected  laterally 
by  the  membrane  ;  but  on  both  sides  they  presented  bony 
and  finely  enamelled  surfaces.  (See  Plate  IV.,  fig.  6.)  In 
this  singular  class  of  fish,  all  was  bone  without,  and  all  was 
cartilage  within  ;  and  the  bone  in  every  instance,  whether  in 
the  form  of  jaws  or  of  plates,  of  scales  or  of  rays,  presented 
an  external  surface  of  enamel. 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


71 


The  fins  are  quite  a  study.  I  have  alluded  to  the  connect- 
ing membrane.  In  existing  fish  this  membrane  is  the  princi- 
pal agent  in  propelling  the  creature ;  it  strikes  against  the 
water,  as  the  membrane  of  the  bat's  wing  strikes  against  the 
air ;  and  the  internal  skeleton  serves  but  to  support  and  stiffen 
it  for  this  purpose.  But  in  the  fin  of  the  Ostcolepis,  as  in 
those  of  many  of  its  contemporaries,  we  find  the  condition 
reversed.  The  rays  were  so  numerous,  and  lay  so  thickly, 
side  by  side,  like  feathers  in  the  wing  of  a  bird,  that  they  pre- 
sented to  the  water  a  surface  of  bone,  and  the  continuous  mem- 
brane only  served  to  support  and  bind  them  together.  In  the 
fins  of  existing  fish  we  find  a  sort  of  bat-wing  construction  ;  in 
those  of  the  Osteolepis  a  sort  of  bird-wing  construction.  The 
rays,  to  give  flexibility  to  the  organ  which  they  compose, 
were  all  jointed,  as  in  the  soft-finned  fish  —  as  in  the  her- 
ring, salmon,  and  cod,  for  example  ;  and  we  find  in  all  the 
fins  the  anterior  ray  rising  from  the  body  in  the  form  of  an 
angular  scale  :  it  is  a  strong,  bony  scale  in  one  of  its  joints, 
and  a  bony  ray  in  the  rest.  The  characteristic  is  a  curious 
one. 

It  is  again  necessary,  in  pursuing  our  description,  to  refer 
for  illustration  to  the  purely  cartilaginous  fishes.  In  at  least 
all  the  higher  orders  of  these,  furnished  with  movable  jaws, 
such  as  the  sturgeon,  the  ray,  and  the  shark,  the  mouth  is 
placed  far  below  the  snout.  The  dog-fish  and  thorn-back  are 
familiar  instances.  Further,  the  mouth  in  bony  fishes  is 
movable  on  both  the  upper  and  under  side,  like  the  beak  of 
the  parrot ;  in  the  higher  cartilaginous  fishes  it  is  movable,  as 
in  quadrupeds,  on  the  under  side  only.  In  all  their  orders, 
too,  except  in  that  of  the  sturgeon,  the  gills  open  to  the  water 
by  detached  spiracles,  or  breathing-holes  ;  but  in  the  stur- 
geon, as  in  the  osseous  fishes,  there  is  a  continuous  linear 


72 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


opening,  shielded  by  an  operculum,  or  gill-cover.  In  the 
Osteolepis  the  mouth  opened  below  the  snout,  but  not  so  far 
below  it  as  in  the  purely  cartilaginous  fishes  —  not  farther 
below  it  than  in  many  of  the  osseous  ones  —  than  in  the 
genus  Aspro,  for  instance,  or  than  in  the  genus  Polynemus, 
or  in  even  the  haddock  or  cod.  It  was  thickly  furnished  with 
slender  and  sharply-pointed  teeth.  I  have  hitherto  been  una- 
ble fully  to  determine  whether,  like  the  mouths  of  the  osseous 
fishes,  it  was  movable  on  both  sides  ;  though,  from  the  perfect 
form  of  what  seems  to  be  the  intermaxillary  bone,  I  cannot 
avoid  thinking  it  was.  The  gills  opened,  as  in  the  osseous 
fishes,  in  continuous  lines,  and  were  covered  by  large  bony 
opercules  —  that  on  the  enamelled  side  somewhat  resemble 
round  japanned  shields. 

But  while  the  head  of  the  Osteolepis,  with  its  appendages, 
thus  resembled,  in  some  points,  the  heads  of  the  bony  fishes, 
the  tail,  like  those  of  most  of  its  contemporaries,  differed  in 
no  respect  from  the  tails  of  cartilaginous  ones,  such  as  the 
sturgeon.  The  vertebral  column  seems  to  have  run  on  to 
well  nigh  the  extremity  of  the  caudal  fin,  which  we  find  de- 
veloped chiefly  on  the  under  side.  The  tail  was  a  one-sided 
tail.  Take  into  account  with  these  peculiarities  —  peculiari- 
ties such  as  the  naked  skull,  jaws,  and  operculum,  the  naked 
and  thickly-set  rays,  and  the  unequally  lobed  condition  of  tail 
—  a  body  covered  with  scales,  that  glitter  like  sheets  of  mica, 
and  assume,  according  to  their  position,  the  parallelogram- 
ical,  rhomboidal,  angular,  or  polygonal  form  —  a  lateral  line 
raised,  not  depressed  —  a  raised  bar  on  the  inner  or  bony 
side  of  the  scales,  which,  like  the  doubled-up  end  of  a  tile, 
seems  to  have  served  the  purpose  of  fastening  them  in  their 
places  —  a  general  clustering  of  alternate  fins  towards  the 
tail  —  and  the  tout  ensemble  must  surely  impart  to  the  reader 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  8?  LLINGiS 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


73 


the  idea  of  a  very  singular  little  fish.  The  ventral  fins  front 
the  space  which  occurs  between  the  two  dorsals,  and  the  anal 
fin  the  space  which  intervenes  between  the  posterior  dorsal 
fin  and  the  tail.  The  length  of  the  Osteolepis,  in  my  larger 
specimens,  somewhat  exceeds  a  foot ;  in  the  smaller,  it  falls 
short  of  six  inches.  There  exist  at  least  three  species  of  this 
ichthyolite,  distinguished  chiefly,  in  two  of  the  instances,  by 
the  smaller  and  larger  size  of  their  scales,  compared  with  the 
bulk  of  their  bodies,  and  by  punctulated  markings  on  the  en- 
amel in  the  case  of  the  third.  This  last,  however,  is  no  spe- 
cific difference,  but  common  to  the  entire  genus,  and  to 
several  other  genera  besides.  The  names  are,  Osteolepis 
macrolepidotus,  O.  microlepidotus,  and  O.  arenatus* 

Next  to  the  Osteolepis  we  may  place  the  Dipterus,  or 
double-wing,  of  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone,  , an  ichthyolite 
first  introduced  to  the  knowledge  of  geologists  by  Mr.  Murch- 
ison,  who,  with  his  friend,  Mr.  Sedgwick,  figured  and  de- 
scribed it  in  a  masterly  paper  on  the  older  sedimentary  for- 
mations of  the  north  of  Scotland,  which  appeared  in  the 
Transactions  of  the  Geological  Society  of  London  for  1828. 
The  name,  derived  from  its  two  dorsals,  would  suit  equally 
well,  like  that  of  the  Osteolepis,  many  of  its  more  recently 
discovered  contemporaries.  From  the  latter  ichthyolite  it  dif- 
fered chiefly  in  the  position  of  its  fins,  which  were  opposite, 
not  alternate  ;  the  double  dorsals  exactly  fronting  the  anal 
and  ventral  fins.  (See  Plate  V.,  fig.  1.)  The  Diplopterus, 
a  nearly  resembling  ichthyolite  of  the  same  formation,  also 
owes  its  name  to  the  order  and  arrangement  of  its  fins, 


*  To  these  there  have  since  been  added  Osteolepis  major,  O.  inter- 
medkis,  and  O.  nanus ;  the  two  latter,  however,  Agassiz  regards  as 
doubtful. 

7 


74 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


which,  like  those  of  the  Dipterus^  were  placed  fronting  each 
other,  and  in  pairs.  But  the  head,  in  proportion  to  the  body, 
was  in  greater  size  than  in  either  the  Dipterus  or  Osteolepis  ; 
and  the  mouth,  as  indicated  by  the  creature's  length  of  jaw, 
must  have  been  of  much  greater  width.  In  their  more  strik- 
ing characteristics,  however,  the  three  genera  seem  to  have 
nearly  agreed.  In  ail  alike,  scales  of  bone  glisten  with  en- 
amel ;  their  jaws,  enamel  without  and  bone  within,  bristle 
thick  with  sharp-pointed  teeth ;  closely-jointed  plates,  bur- 
nished like  ancient  helmets,  cover  their  heads,  and  seem  to 
have  formed  a  kind  of  outer  table  to  skulls  externally  of  bone 
and  internally  of  cartilage  ;  their  gill-covers  consist  each  of 
a  single  piece,  like  the  gill-cover  of  the  sturgeon ;  their  tails 
were  formed  chiefly  on  the  lower  side  of  their  bodies ;  and 
the  rays  of  their  fins,  enamelled  like  their  plates  and  their 
scales,  stand  up  over  the  connecting  membrane,  like  the  steel 
or  brass  in  that  peculiar  armor  of  the  middle  ages,  whose 
multitudinous  pieces  of  metal  were  fastened  together  on  a 
groundwork  of  cloth  or  of  leather.  All  their  scales,  plates, 
and  rays  present  a  similar  style  of  ornament.  The  shining 
and  polished  enamel  is  mottled  with  thickly-set  punctures,  or, 
rather,  punctulated  markings ;  so  that  a  scale  or  plate,  when 
viewed  through  a  microscope,  reminds  one  of  the  cover  of  a 
saddle.  Some  of  the  ganoid  scales  of  Burdie  House  present 
surfaces  similarly  punctulated.* 


*  There  exists,  according  to  Agassiz,  only  a  single  species  of  Dip- 
terus —  D.  macrelspidotus ;  whereas  four  species  of  Diplopterus  have  been 
enumerated  —  D.  affinis,  D.  borealis,  D.  macrocephalus,  and  D.  Agassizii. 
The  existence  of  the  last  named,  however,  as  a  distinct  species,  is  re- 
garded as  problematical  by  the  distinguished  naturalist  whose  name 
has  been  affixed  to  it. 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


75 


The  Glyptolepis,  or  carved  scale,  may  be  regarded  as  the 
representative  of  a  family  of  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone, 
which,  differing  very  materially  from  the  genera  described, 
had  yet  many  traits  in  common  with  them,  such  as  the  bare, 
bony  skull,  the  bony  scales,  the  naked  rays,  and  the  unequally 
sided  condition  of  tail.  The  fins,  which  were  of  considera- 
ble length  in  proportion  to  their  breadth  of  base,  and  present 
in  some  of  the  specimens  a  pendulous-like  appearance,  clus- 
ter thick  together  towards  the  creature's  lower  extremities, 
leaving  the  upper  portion  bare.  There  are  two  dorsals 
placed  as  in  the  Dipterus  and  Diplopteras  —  the  anterior  di- 
rectly opposite  the  ventral  fin,  the  posterior  directly  opposite 
the  anal.  The  tail  is  long  and  spreading  ;  —  the  rays,  long 
and  numerously  articulated,  are  comparatively  stout  at  their 
base,  and  slender  as  hairs  where  they  terminate.  The 
shoulder-bones  are  of  huge  dimensions,  the  teeth  extremely 
minute.  But  the  most  characteristic  parts  of  the  creature 
are  the  scales.  They  are  of  great  size,  compared  with  the 
size  of  the  animal.  An  individual  not  more  than  half  a  foot 
in  length,  the  specimen  figured,  (see  Plate  V.,  fig.  2,)  exhib- 
its scales  fully  three  eighth  parts  of  an  inch  in  diameter.  In  an- 
other more  broken  specimen  there  are  scales  a  full  inch  across, 
and  yet  the  length  of  the  ichthyolite  to  which  they  belonged 
seems  not  to  have  much  exceeded  a  foot  and  a  half.  Each  scale 
consists  of  a  double  plate,  an  inner  and  an  outer.  The  struc- 
ture of  the  inner  is  not  peculiar  to  the  family  or  the  forma- 
tion :  it  is  formed  of  a  number  of  minute  concentric  circles, 
crossed  by  still  minuter  radiating  lines  —  the  one  described, 
and  the  other  proceeding  from  a  common  centre.  (See  Plate 
V.,  fig.  5.)  All  scales  that  receive  their  accessions  of 
growth  equally  at  their  edges  exhibit,  internally,  a  correspond- 
ing character.    The  outer  plate  presents  an  appearance  less 


76 


THE   OLD  KED  SANDSTONE. 


common.  It  seems  relieved  into  ridges  that  drop  adown  it 
like  sculptured  threads,  some  of  them  entire,  some  broken, 
some  straight,  some  slightly  waved,  (see  Plate  V.,  fig.  3  ;)  and 
hence  the  name  of  the  ichthyolite.  The  plates  of  the  head 
were  ornamented  in  a  similar  style,  but  their  threads  are  so 
broken  as  to  present  the  appearance  of  dotted  lines,  the  dots 
all  standing  out  in  bold  relief.  My  collection  contains  three 
varieties  of  this  family  ;  one  of  them  disinterred  from  out  the 
Cromarty  beds  about  seven  years  ago,  and  the  others  only  a 
little  later,  though  partly  from  the  inadequacy  of  a  written 
description,  through  which  I  was  led  to  confound  the  Osteole- 
pis  with  the  Diplopterus ,  and  to  regard  the  Glyptolepis  as 
the  Osteolepis,  I  was  not  aware  until  lately  that  the  discovery 
was  really  such ;  and  under  the  latter  name  I  described  the 
creature  in  the  Witness  newspaper  several  weeks  ere  it  had 
received  the  name  which  it  now  bears.  It  was  first  intro- 
duced to  the  notice  of  Agassiz,  in  Autumn  last,  by  Lady  Cum- 
min g  of  Altyre.  The  species,  however,  was  a  different  one 
from  any  yet  found  at  Cromarty.* 

The  Cheirolepis,  or  scaly  pectoral,  forms  the  representative 
of  yet  another  family  of  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone,  and 
one  which  any  eye,  however  unpractised,  could  at  once  dis- 
tinguish from  the  families  just  described.  Professor  Traill 
of  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  a  gentleman  whose  research- 
es in  Natural  History  have  materially  extended  the  bounda- 
ries of  knowledge,  and  whose  frankness  in  communicating 
information  is  only  equalled  by  his  facility  in  acquiring  it, 
was  the  first  discoverer  of  this  family,  one  variety  of  which, 
the  Cheirolepis  Traillii,  bears  his  name.    The  figured  speci- 


*  There  are  three  species  of  Glyptolepis  —  G.  elegans,  G.  UptopteruS) 
and  G.  microlepidotus. 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


77 


men  (Plate  VI.,  fig.  1)  Agassiz  has  pronounced  a  new  species, 
the  discovery  of  the  writer.  In  all  the  remains  of  this  curi- 
ous fish  which  I  have  hitherto  seen,  the  union  of  the  osseous 
with  the  cartilaginous,  in  the  general  framework  of  the  crea- 
ture, is  strikingly  apparent.  The  external  skull,  the  great 
shoulder-bone,  and  the  rays  of  the  fins,  are  all  unequivocally 
osseous  ;  the  occipital  and  shoulder-bones,  in  particular,  seem 
of  great  strength  and  massiveness,  and  are  invariably  pre- 
served, however  imperfect  the  specimen  in  other  respects ; 
whereas,  even  in  specimens  the  most  complete,  and  which 
exhibit  every  scale  and  every  ray,  however  minute,  and  show 
unchanged  the  entire  outline  of  the  animal,  not  a  fragment  of 
the  internal  skeleton  appears.  The  Cheirolepis  seems  to  have 
varied  from  fourteen  to  four  inches  in  length.  When  seen 
in  profile,  the  under  line,  as  in  the  figured  variety,  seems 
thickly  covered  with  fins,  and  the  upper  line  well  nigh 
naked.  The  large  pectorals  almost  encroach  on  the  ven- 
tral fins,  and  the  ventrals  on  the  anal  fin ;  whereas  the 
back,  for  two  thirds  the  entire  length  of  the  creature,  pre- 
sents a  bare  rectilinear  ridge,  and  the  single  dorsal,  which 
rises  but  a  little  way  over  the  tail,  immediately  opposite  the 
posterior  portion  of  the  anal  fin,  is  comparatively  of  small 
size.  The  tail,  which,  in  the  general  condition  of  being 
developed  chiefly  on  the  lower  side,  resembles  the  tails  of  all 
the  creature's  contemporaries,  is  elegantly  lobed.  The  scales, 
in  proportion  to  the  bulk  of  the  body  which  they  cover,  are 
not  more  than  one  twentieth  the  size  of  those  of  the  Osteole- 
pis.  They  are  richly  enamelled,  and  range  diagonally  from 
the  shoulder  to  the  belly  in  waving  lines  ;  and  so  fretted  is 
each  individual  scale  by  longitudinal  grooves  and  ridges,  that, 
on  first  bringing  it  under  the  glass,  it  seems  a  little  bunch  of 
glittering  thorns,  though,  when  more  minutely  examined,  it  is 
7* 


78 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


found  to  present  somewhat  the  appearance  of  the  outer  side 
of  the  deep-sea  cockle,  with  its  strongly  marked  ribs  and  chan- 
nels, the  point  in  which  the  posterior  point  terminates  repre- 
senting the  hinge.  (See  Plate  VI.,  fig.  2.)  The  bones  of 
the  head,  enamelled  like  the  scales,  are  carved  into  jagged 
inequalities,  somewhat  resembling  those  on  the  skin  of  the 
shark,  but  more  irregular.  The  sculpturings  seem  intended 
evidently  for  effect.  To  produce  harmony  of  appearance 
between  the  scaly  coat  and  the  enamelled  occipital  plates  of 
bone,  the  surfaces  of  the  latter  are  relieved,  where  they  border 
on  the  shoulders,  into  what  seem  scales,  just  as  the  dead 
walls  of  a  building  are  sometimes,  for  the  sake  of  uniformity, 
wrought  into  blind  windows.  The  enamelled  rays  of  the  fins 
are  finished,  if  I  may  so  speak,  after  the  same  style.  They 
lie  thick  upon  one  another  as  the  fibres  of  a  quill,  and  like 
these,  too,  they  are  imbricated  on  the  sides,  so  that  the  edge 
of  each  seems  jagged  into  a  row  of  prickles.  (See  Plate  VI., 
fig.  3.)  The  jaws  of  the  Cheirolepis  were  armed  with  thickly- 
set  sharp  teeth,  like  those  of  its  contemporaries,  the  Osteolepis 
and  Dijplopterus* 


*  There  have  been  five  species  of  Cheirolepis  enumerated — C. 
Cummingice,  C.  splendens,  C.  Traillii,  C.  unilateralism  and  C.  Uragus. 
The  Cheirolepis  splendens  and  C.  unilateralis  Agassiz  regards  as 
doubtful. 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


79 


CHAPTER  V. 

The  Classifying  Principle,  and  its  Uses.  —  Three  groups  of  Ichthyo- 
lites  among  the  Organisms  of  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone.  — 
Peculiarities  of  the  Third  Group.  —  Its  Varieties.  —  Description 
of  the  Cheir acanthus.  —  Of  two  unnamed  Possils  of  the  same  Or- 
der. —  Microscopic  Beauty  of  these  Ancient  Pish.  —  Various  Styles 
of  Ornament  which  obtain  among  them.  —  The  Molluscs  of  the 
Formation.  —  Remarkable  chiefly  for  the  Union  of  Modern  with 
Ancient  Forms  which  they  exhibit.  —  Its  Vegetables.  —  Importance 
and  Interest  of  the  Record  which  it  furnishes. 

There  rests  in  the  neighborhood  of  Cromarty,  on  the  up- 
per stratum  of  one  of  the  richest  ichthyolite  beds  I  have  yet 
seen,  a  huge  water-rolled  boulder  of  granitic  gneiss,  which 
must  have  been  a  traveller,  in  some  of  the  later  periods  of 
geological  change,  from  a  mountain  range  in  the  interior 
highlands  of  Ross-shire,  more  than  sixty  miles  away.  It  is 
an  uncouth  looking  mass,  several  tons  in  weight,  with  a  flat 
upper  surface,  like  that  of  a  table ;  and  as  a  table,  when  en- 
gaged in  collecting  my  specimens,  I  have  often  found  occa- 
sion to  employ  it.  I  have  covered  it  over,  times  without 
number,  with  fragments  of  fossil  fish  —  with  plates,  and  scales, 
and  jaws,  and  fins,  and,  when  the  search  proved  successful, 
with  entire  ichthyolites.  Why  did  I  always  arrange  them, 
almost  without  thinking  of  the  matter,  into  three  groups  ? 
Why,  even  when  the  mind  was  otherwise  employed,  did  the 
fragments  of  the  Coccosteus  and  Fterichthys  come  to  occupy 
one  corner  of  the  stone,  and  those  of  the  various  fish  just 
described  another  corner,  and  the  equally  well-marked  re- 
mains of  a  yet  different  division  a  third  corner  ?  The 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


process  seemed  almost  mechanical,  so  little  did  it  employ  the 
attention,  and  so  invariable  were  the  results.  The  fossils  of 
the  surrounding  bed  always  found  their  places  on  the  huge 
stone  in  three  groups,  and  at  times  there  was  yet  a  fourth 
group  added  —  a  group  whose  organisms  belonged  not  to  the 
animal,  but  the  vegetable  kingdom.  What  led  to  the  arrange- 
ment, or  in  what  did  it  originate  ?  In  a  principle  inherent  in 
the  human  mind  —  that  principle  of  classification  which  we 
find  pervading  all  science  —  which  gives  to  each  of  the  many 
cells  of  recollection  its  appropriate  facts  —  and  without  which 
all  knowledge  would  exist  as  a  disorderly  and  shapeless  mass, 
too  huge  for  the  memory  to  grasp,  and  too  heterogeneous  for 
the  understanding  to  employ.  I  have  described  but  two  of 
the  groups,  and  must  now  say  a  very  little  about  the  principle 
on  which,  justly  or  otherwise,  I  used  to  separate  the  third, 
and  on  the  distinctive  differences  which  rendered  the  separa- 
tion so  easy. 

The  recent  bony  fishes  are  divided,  according  to  the 
Cuvierian  system  of  classification,  into  two  great  orders,  the 
soft-finned  and  the  thorny-finned  order  —  the  Malacopterygii 
and  the  Acanthopterygii.  In  the  former  the  rays  of  the  fins 
are  thin,  flexible,  articulated,  branched  :  each  ray  somewhat 
resembles  a  jointed  bamboo  ;  with  this  difference,  however, 
that  what  seems  a  single  ray  at  bottom,  branches  out  into 
-  three  or  four  rays  a-top.  In  the  latter,  (the  thorny-finned 
order,)  —  especially  in  their  anterior  dorsal,  and  perhaps  anal 
fins,  —  the  rays  are  stiff  continuous  spikes  of  bone,  and  each 
stands  detached  as  a  spear,  without  joint  or  branch.  The 
perch  may  be  instanced  as  a  familiar  illustration  of  this  order 
—  the  gold-fish  of  the  other.  Now,  between  the  fins  of  two 
sets  —  shall  I  venture  to  say  orders  ?  —  of  the  ichthyolites  of 
the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone,  an  equally  striking  difference 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


81 


obtains.  The  fin  of  the  Osteolepis,  with  its  surface  of  enam- 
elled and  minutely  jointed  bones,  I  have  already  described  as 
a  sort  of  bird-wing  fin.  The  naked  rays,  with  their  flat- 
tened surfaces,  lay  thick  together  as  feathers  in  the  wing  of 
a  bird  —  so  thick  as  to  conceal  the  connecting  membrane  ; 
and  fins  of  similar  construction  characterized  the  families 
of  the  Dipterus,  Diploplerus,  Glyptolepis,  Cheirolepis,  Holop- 
tychius,  and,  I  doubt  not,  many  other  families  of  the  same 
period,  which  await  the  researches  of  future  discoverers.  But 
the  fins  of  another  set  of  ichthyolites,  their  contemporaries, 
may  be  described  as  bat-wing  fins  :  they  presented  to  the 
water  a  broad  expanse  of  membrane  ;  and  the  solitary  ray 
which  survives  in  each  was  not  a  jointed,  but  a  continuous 
spear-like  ray.  The  fins  of  this  set,  or  order,  are  thorny-fins, 
like  those  of  the  Acanthoptery gii ;  the  anterior  edge  of  each, 
with  the  exception  of,  perhaps,  the  caudal  fin,  which  differs  in 
construction  from  the  others,  is  composed  of  a  strong,  bony 
spike.  Such,  with  some  tacit  reference,  perhaps,  to  the  sim- 
ilar Cuvierian  principle  of  classification,  were  the  distinctive 
differences,  on  the  strength  of  which  I  used  to  arrange  two 
of  my  groups  of  fossils  on  the  granitic  boulder  ;  and  the 
influence  of  the  same  principle,  almost  instinctively  exerted, 
—  for,  in  writing  the  previous  pages,  I  scarce  thought  of  its 
existence,  —  has,  I  find,  given  to  each  group  its  own  chapter. 

Of  the  membranous-finned  and  thorny-rayed  order  of  ich- 
thyolites, the  C  heir  acanthus,  or  thorny-hand,  (i.  e.  pectoral,) 
may  be  regarded  as  an  adequate  representative.  (See  Plate 
VII.,  fig.  1.)  The  Cheiracanthus  must  have  been  an  eminently 
handsome  little  fish  —  slim,  tapering,  and  described  in  all  its 
outlines,  whether  of  the  body  or  the  fins,  by  gracefully  waved 
lines.  It  is,  however,  a  rare  matter  to  find  it  presenting  its 
original  profile  in  the  stone  ;  —  none  of  the  other  ichthyolites 


82 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


are  so  frequently  distorted  as  the  Cheir acanthus.  It  seems  to 
have  been  more  a  cartilaginous  and  less  an  osseous  fish  than 
most  of  its  contemporaries.  However  perfect  the  specimen, 
no  part  of  the  internal  skeleton  is  ever  found,  not  even  when 
scales  as  minute  as  the  point  of  a  pin  are  preserved,  and 
every  spine  stands  up  in  its  original  place.  And  hence,  per- 
haps, a  greater  degree  of  flexibility,  and  consequent  distor- 
tion. The  body  was  covered  with  small  angular  scales, 
brightly  enamelled,  and  delicately  fretted  into  parallel  ridges, 
that  run  longitudinally  along  the  upper  half  of  the  scale,  and 
leave  the  posterior  portion  of  it  a  smooth,  glittering  sur- 
face. (See  Plate  VII.,  fig.  2.)  They  diminish  in  size  to- 
wards the  head,  which,  from  the  faint  stain  left  on  the  stone, 
seems  to  have  been  composed  of  cartilage  exclusively,  and 
either  covered  with  skin,  or  with  scales  of  extreme  minute- 
ness. The  lower  edge  of  the  operculum  bears  a  tagged 
fringe,  like  that  of  a  curtain.  The  tail,  a  fin  of  considerable 
power,  had  the  unequal  sided  character  common  to  the  for- 
mation; and  the  slender  and  numerous  rays  on  both  sides 
are  separated  by  so  many  articulations  as  to  present  the  ap- 
pearance of  parallelogramical  scales.  The  other  fins  are 
comparatively  of  small  size.  There  is  a  single  dorsal  placed 
about  two  thirds  the  entire  length  of  the  creature  adown  the 
back ;  and  exactly  opposite  its  posterior  edge  is  the  anterior 
edge  of  the  anal  fin.  The  ventral  fins  are  placed  high  upon 
the  belly,  somewhat  like  those  of  the  perch  ;  the  pectorals 
only  a  little  higher.  But  it  is  rather  in  the  construction  of 
the  fins,  than  their  position,  that  the  peculiarities  of  the 
Cheiracanthus  are  most  marked.  The  anterior  edge  of  each, 
as  in  the  pectorals  of  the  existing  genera  Cestracion  and 
Ckimczra,  is  formed  of  a  strong,  large  spine.  In  the  Chim&ra 
borealis,  a  cartilaginous  fish  of  the  Northern  Ocean,  the 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  Of  ILLINOIS 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


88 


spine  seems  placed  in  front  of  the  weaker  rays,  just,  if  I  may 
be  allowed  the  comparison,  as,  in  a  line  of  mountaineers  en- 
gaged in  crossing  a  swollen  torrent,  the  strongest  man  in  the 
party  is  placed  on  the  upper  side  of  the  line,  to  break  off  the 
force  of  the  current  from  the  rest.  In  the  Cheir acanthus, 
however,  each  fin  seems  to  consist  of  but  a  single  spine,  with 
an  angular  membrane  fixed  to  it  by  one  of  its  sides,  and  at- 
tached to  the  creature's  body  on  the  other.  Its  fins  are  masts 
and  sails  —  the  spine  representing  the  mast,  and  the  mem- 
brane the  sail  ;  and  it  is  a  curious  characteristic  of  the  order, 
that  the  membrane,  like  the  body,  of  the  ichthyolite,  is  thickly 
covered  with  minute  scales.  The  mouth  seems  to  have 
opened  a  very  little  under  the  snout,  as  in  the  haddock ;  and 
there  are  no  indications  of  its  having  been  furnished  with 
teeth* 

An  ichthyolite  first  discovered  by  the  writer  about  three 
years  ago,  and  introduced  by  him  to  the  notice  of  Agassiz 
during  his  recent  visit  to  Edinburgh,  but  still  unfurnished  with 
a  name,f  is  a  still  more  striking  representative  of  this  order 
than  even  the  Cheir  acanthus.  It  must  have  been  proportion- 
ally thick  and  short,  like  some  of  the  tropical  fishes,  though 
rather  handsome  than  otherwise.  (See  Plate  VIII.,  fig.  1.) 
The  scales,  minute,  but  considerably  larger  than  those  of  the 
Cheir  acanthus,  are  of  a  rhomboidal  form,  and  so  regularly 
striated —  the  strioe  converging  to  a  point  at  the  posterior  ter- 
mination of  each  scale  —  that,  when  examined  with  a  glass, 
the  body  appears  as  if  covered  with  scallops.    (See  Plate 


*  There  have  been  three  species  of  Cheir  acanthus  determined  —  C. 
microlepidotns,  C.  minor,  and  C.  Murchisoni. 

f  Now  determined  to  be  a  species  of  Diplacanthus —  D.  longis 
pinus. 


84 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


VIII.,  fig.  3.)  It  seems  a  piece  of  exquisite  shell-work,  such 
as  we  sometimes  see  on  the  walls  of  a  grotto.  There  are 
two  dorsals  —  the  posterior,  immediately  over  the  tail,  and 
directly  opposite  the  anal  fin  ;  the  anterior,  somewhat  higher 
up  than  the  ventrals ;  and  all  the  fins  are  of  great  size.  The 
anterior  edge  of  each  is  formed  of  a  strong  spine,  round  as 
the  handle  of  a  halbert,  and  diminishing  gradually  and  sym- 
metrically to  a  sharp  point.  Though  formed  externally  of 
solid  bone,  it  seems  to  have  been  composed  internally  of  car- 
tilage, like  the  bones  of  some  of  the  osseous  fishes  —  those 
of  the  halibut,  for  instance  ;  and  the  place  of  the  cartilage  is 
generally  occupied  in  the  stone  by  carbonate  of  lime.  The 
membrane  which  formed  the  body  of  the  fin  was  covered, 
like  that  of  the  Cheir acanthus,  with  minute  scales,  of  the 
same  scallop-like  pattern  with  the  rest,  but  of  not  more  than 
one  sixth  the  size  of  those  which  cover  the  creature's  sides 
and  back.  Imagine  two  lug-sails  stiffly  extended  between 
the  deck  of  a  brigantine  and  her  two  masts,  the  latter 
raking  as  far  aft  as  to  form  an  angle  of  sixty  degrees  with 
the  horizon,  and  some  idea  may  be  formed  of  the  dorsals 
of  this  singular  fish.  They  were  lug-sails,  formed  not  to  be 
acted  upon  by  the  air,  but  to  act  upon  the  water.  None  of 
my  specimens  show  the  head  ;  but,  judging  from  analogies 
furnished  by  the  other  families  of  the  group,  I  entertain  little 
doubt  that  it  will  be  found  to  be  covered,  not  by  bony  plates, 
but  by  minute  scales,  diminishing,  as  they  approach  the  snout, 
into  mere  points.  In  none  of  the  specimens  does  any  part 
of  the  internal  skeleton  survive. 

My  collection  contains  the  remains  of  yet  another  fish  of 
this  group,  which  was  unfurnished  with  a  name  only  a  few 
months  ago,  but  which  I  first  discovered  about  five  years 
since.    (See  Plate  VIII.,  fig.  2.)    It  is  now  designated  the 


MATE  VJZL 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


85 


Diplacanthiis ;  and,  though  the  smallest  ichthyolite  of  the  for- 
mation yet  known,  it  is  by  no  means  the  least  curious.  The 
length  from  head  to  tail,  in  some  of  my  specimens,  does  not 
exceed  three  inches ;  the  largest  fall  a  little  short  of  five. 
The  scales,  which  are  of  such  extreme  minuteness  that  their 
peculiarities  can  be  detected  by  only  a  powerful  glass,  re- 
semble those  of  the  Cheir  acanthus ;  but  the  ridges  are  more 
waved,  and  seem,  instead  of  running  in  nearly  parallel  lines, 
to  converge  towards  the  apex.  There  are  two  dorsals,  the 
one  rising  immediately  from  the  shoulder,  a  little  below  the 
nape,  the  other  directly  opposite  the  anal  fin.  The  ventrals 
are  placed  near  the  middle  of  the  belly.  There  is  a  curious 
mechanism  of  shoulder-bone  involved  with  a  lateral  spine  and 
with  the  pectorals.  The  creature,  unlike  the  Cheir  acanthus, 
seems  to  have  been  furnished  with  jaws  of  bone  :  there  are 
fragments  of  bone  upon  the  head,  tubercled  apparently  on 
the  outer  surface  ;  and  minute  cylinders  of  carbonate  of  lime 
running  along  all  the  larger  bones,  where  we  find  them  acci- 
dentally laid  open,  show  that  they  were  formed  on  internal 
bases  of  cartilage.  But  the  best  marked  characteristic  of 
the  creature  is  furnished  by  the  spines  of  its  fins,  which  are 
of  singular  beauty.  Each  spine  resembles  a  bundle  of  rods, 
or,  rather,  like  a  Gothic  column,  the  sculptured  semblance  of 
a  bundle  of  rods,  which  finely  diminish  towards  a  point,  sharp 
and  tapering  as  that  of  a  rush.  (See  Plate  VIII.,  fig.  4.)  * 
The  rest  of  the  fin  presents  the  appearance  of  a  mere  scaly 
membrane,  and  no  part  of  the  internal  skeleton  appears. 
Perhaps  this  last  circumstance,  common  to  all  the  ichthyolites 
of  the  formation,  if  we  except  the  families  of  the  Coccostcus 


*  Agassiz  reckons  four  species  of  Diplacanthiis  —  D.  crassispi?ius, 
D.  longispimis,  D.  striatums,  and  D.  striatus. 
8 


86 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


and  Ptericlithys,  may  throw  some  light  on  the  apparently 
membranous  condition  of  fin  peculiar  to  the  families  of  this 
order.  What  appears  in  the  fossil  a  mere  scaly  membrane  at- 
tached to  a  single  spine  of  bone,  may  have  had  in  the  living 
animal  a  cartilaginous  framework,  like  the  fins  of  the  dog- 
fish and  thorn-back,  that  are  amply  furnished  with  rays  of  carti- 
lage —  though,  of  course,  all  such  rays  must  have  disappeared 
in  the  stone,  like  the  rest  of  the  internal  skeleton.  Unques- 
tionably, the  caudal  fin  of  the  two  last  described  fossils  must 
have  been  strengthened  by  some  such  internal  framework ; 
for,  as  they  differ  from  the  other  fins,  in  being  unprovided 
with  osseous  spines,  they  would  have  formed,  without  an  in- 
ternal skeleton,  mere  pendulous  attachments,  altogether  unfit- 
ted to  serve  the  purposes  of  instruments  of  motion.  There 
may  be  found  in  the  bony  spines  of  all  this  order  direct  proof 
that,  had  there  been  an  internal  skeleton  of  bone,  it  would 
have  survived.  The  spines  run  deep  into  the  body,  as  a 
ship's  masts  run  deep  into  her  hulk ;  and  we  can  see  them 
standing  up  among  the  scales  to  their  termination,  in  such 
bold  relief,  that,  from  a  sort  of  pictorial  illusion,  they  seem 
as  if  fixed  to  the  creature's  sides,  and  foreshortened,  instead 
of  rising  in  profile  from  its  back  or  belly.  (See  Plate  VIII. , 
fig.  L)  The  observer  will  of  course  remember,  that,  in  the 
living  animal,  the  view  of  the  spine  must  have  terminated 
with  the  line  of  the  profile,  just  as  the  view  of  a  vessel's  mast 
terminates  with  the  deck,  though  the  mast  itself  penetrates  to 
the  interior  keel.  Now,  it  must  be  deemed  equally  obvious, 
that,  had  the  vertebral  column  been  of  bone,  not  of  cartilage, 
instead  of  exhibiting  no  trace,  even  the  faintest,  of  having 
ever  existed,  it  would  have  stood  out  in  as  high  relief  as  the 
internal  buts  or  stocks  of  the  spines.  And  such  are  the 
general  characteristics  of  a  few  of  the  ichthyolites  of  this 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


87 


lower  formation  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  —  a  few  of  the 
more  striking  forms,  sculptured,  if  I  may  so  speak,  on  the 
middle  compartment  of  the  Caithness  pyramid.  It  would  be 
easy  rendering  the  list  more  complete  at  even  the  present 
stage,  when  the  field  is  still  so  new  that  almost  every  laborer 
in  it  can  exhibit  genera  and  species  unknown  to  his  brother 
laborers.  The  remains  of  a  species  of  Holoptychius  have 
been  discovered  low  in  the  formation,  at  Orkney,  by  Dr. 
Traill ;  similar  remains  have  been  found  in  it  at  Gamrie.  In 
its  upper  beds  the  specimens  seem  so  different  from  those  in 
the  lower,  that,  in  extensive  collections  made  from  the  inferior 
strata  of  one  locality,  Agassiz  has  been  unable  to  identify  a 
single  specimen  with  the  specimens  of  collections  made  from 
the  superior  strata  of  another,  though  the  genera  are  the 
same.  Meanwhile  there  are  heads  and  hands  at  work  on  the 
subject ;  Geology  has  become  a  Briareus  ;  and  I  have  little 
doubt  that,  in  five  years  hence,  this  third  portion  of  the  Old 
Red  Sandstone  will  be  found  to  contain  as  many  distinct  vari- 
eties of  fossil  fish  as  the  whole  geological  scale  Vvas  known 
to  contain  fifteen  years  ago.* 

There  is  something  very  admirable  in  the  consistency  of 
style  which  obtains  among  the  ichthyolites  of  this  formation. 
In  no  single  fish  of  either  group  do  we  find  two  styles  of  or- 
nament—  in  scarce  any  two  fishes  do  we  find  exactly  the 
same  style.   I  pass  fine  buildings  almost  every  day.   In  some 

*  This  prediction  has  been  already  more  than  accomplished.  At 
the  death  of  Cuvier,  in  1832,  there  were  bnt  ninety-two  species  of 
fossil  fish  known  to  the  geologist ;  Agassiz  now  enumerates  one  hun- 
dred and  five  species  that  belong  to  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  alone ; 
and  if  we  include  doubtful  species,  on  which  he  has  not  authorita- 
tively decided  —  some  of  which,  however,  were  included  in  the  list 
of  Cuvier  —  one  hundred  and  fifty-one. 


88 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


there  is  a  discordant  jumbling  —  an  Egyptian  Sphinx,  for  in- 
stance, placed  over  a  Doric  portico ;  in  all  there  prevails  a 
vast  amount  of  timid  imitation.  The  one  repeats  the  other, 
either  in  general  outline  or  in  the  subordinate  parts.  But  the 
case  is  otherwise  among  the  ichthyolites  of  the  Old  Red 
Sandstone  ;  nor  does  it  lessen  the  wonder,  that  their  nicer 
ornaments  should  yield  their  beauty  only  to  the  microscope. 
There  is  unity  of  character  in  every  scale,  plate,  and  fin  — 
unity  such  as  all  men  of  taste  have  learned  to  admire  in 
those  three  Grecian  orders  from  which  the  ingenuity  of  Rome 
was  content  to  borrow,  when  it  professed  to  invent  —  in  the 
masculine  Doric,  the  chaste  and  graceful  Ionic,  the  exquisite- 
ly elegant  Corinthian;  and  yet  the  unassisted  eye  fails  to  dis- 
cover the  finer  evidences  of  this  unity :  it  would  seem  as  if 
the  adorable  Architect  had  wrought  it  out  in  secret  with  ref- 
erence to  the  Divine  idea  alone.  The  artist  who  sculptured 
the  cherry-stone  consigned  it  to  a  cabinet,  and  placed  a  mi- 
croscope beside  it ;  the  microscopic  beauty  of  these  ancient 
fish  was  consigned  to  the  twilight  depths  of  a  primeval  ocean. 
There  is  a  feeling  which  at  times  grows  upon  the  painter  and 
the  statuary,  as  if  the  perception  and  love  of  the  beautiful 
had  been  sublimed  into  a  kind  of  moral  sense.  Art  comes 
to  be  pursued  for  its  own  sake  ;  the  exquisite  conception  in 
the  mind,  or  the  elegant  and  elaborate  model,  becomes  all  in 
all  to  the  worker,  and  the  dread  of  criticism  or  the  appetite 
of  praise  almost  nothing.  And  thus,  through  the  influence 
of  a  power  somewhat  akin  to  conscience,  but  whose  province 
is  not  the  just  and  the  good,  but  the  fair,  the  refined,  the  ex- 
quisite, have  works  prosecuted  in  solitude,  and  never  intended 
for  the  world,  been  found  fraught  with  loveliness.  Sir 
Thomas  Lawrence,  when  finishing,  with  the  most  consum- 
mate care,  a  picture  intended  for  a  semi-barbarous,  foreign 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


89 


court,  was  asked  why  he  took  so  much  pains  with  a  piece  des- 
tined, perhaps,  never  to  come  under  the  eye  of  a  connoisseur. 
"  I  cannot  help  it,"  he  replied  ;  "  I  do  the  best  I  can,  unable, 
through  a  tyrant  feeling,  that  will  not  brook  offence,  to  do 
any  thing  less."  It  would  be  perhaps  over  bold  to  attribute 
any  such  overmastering  feeling  to  the  Creator  ;  yet  certain  it 
is,  that  among  his  creatures  well  nigh  all  approximations 
towards  perfection,  in  the  province  in  which  it  expatiates, 
owe  their  origin  to  it,  and  that  Deity  in  all  his  works  is  his 
own  rule. 

The  Osteolepis  was  cased,  I  have  said,  from  head  to  tail,  in 
complete  armor.  The  head  had  its  plaited  mail,  the  body  its 
scaly  mail,  the  fins  their  mail  of  parallel  and  jointed  bars  ; 
the  entire  suit  glittered  with  enamel ;  and  every  plate,  bar, 
and  scale  was  dotted  with  microscopic  points..  Every  ray 
had  its  double  or  treble  punctulated  row,  every  scale  or  plate 
its  punctulated  group  ;  the  markings  lie  as  thickly  in  propor- 
tion to  the  fields  they  cover,  as  the  circular  perforations  in  a 
lace  veil ;  and  the  effect,  viewed  through  the  glass,  is  one  of 
lightness  and  beauty.  In  the  Cheirolepis  an  entirely  different 
style  obtains.  The  enamelled  scales  and  plates  glitter  with 
minute  ridges,  that  show  like  thorns  in  a  December  morning 
varnished  with  ice.  Every  ray  of  the  fins  presents  its  serrated 
edge,  every  occipital  plate  and  bone  its  sculptured  promi- 
nences, every  scale  its  bunch  of  prickle-like  ridges.  A  more 
rustic  style  characterized  the  Ghjptolepis.  The  enamel  of 
the  scales  and  plates  is  less  bright ;  the  sculpturings  are  exe- 
cuted on  a  larger  scale,  and  more  rudely  finished.  The 
relieved  ridges,  waved  enough  to  give  them  a  pendulous 
appearance,  drop  adown  the  head  and  body.  The  rays  of 
the  fins,  of  great  length,  present  also  a  pendulous  appear- 
ance.   The  bones  and  scales  seem  disproportionately  large. 


90 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


There  is  a  general  rudeness  in  the  finish  of  the  creature, 
if  I  may  so  speak,  that  reminds  one  of  the  tattooings  of 
a  savage,  or  the  corresponding  style  of  art  in  which  he  orna- 
ments the  handle  of  his  stone-hatchet  or  his  war-club.  In  the 
Cheir 'acanthus,  on  the  contrary,  there  is  much  of  a  minute 
and  cabinet-like  elegance.  The  silvery  smoothness  of  the 
fins,  dotted  with  scarcely  visible  scales,  harmonized  with  a 
similar  appearance  of  head  ;  a  style  of  sculpture  resembling 
the  parallel  etchings  of  the  line-engraver  fretted  the  scales  ; 
the  fins  were  small,  and  the  contour  elegant.  I  have  already 
described  the  appearance  of  the  unnamed  fossils  —  the  seem- 
ing shell-work  that  covered  the  sides  of  the  one  —  its  mast- 
like spines  and  sail-like  fins ;  and  the  Gothic-like  peculiarities 
that  characterized  the  other  —  its  rodded,  obelisk-like  spines, 
and  the  external  framework  of  bone  that  stretched  along  its 
pectorals. 

Till  very  lately,  it  was  held  that  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  of 
Scotland  contained  no  mollusca.  It  seemed  difficult,  however, 
to  imagine  a  sea  abounding  in  fish,  and  yet  devoid  of  shells. 
In  all  my  explorations,  therefore,  I  had  an  eye  to  the  discov- 
ery of  the  latter,  and  on  two  several  occasions  I  disinterred 
what  I  supposed  might  have  formed  portions  of  a  cardium  or 
terebratula.  On  applying  the  glass,  however,  the  punctulated 
character  of  the  surface  showed  that  the  supposed  shells  were 
but  parts  of  the  concave  helmet-like  plate  that  covered  the 
snout  of  the  Osteolejns.  In  the  iehthyolite  beds  of  Cromarty 
and  Ross,  of  Moray,  Banff,  Perth,  Forfar,  Fife,  and  Berwick- 
shire, not  a  single  shell  has  yet  been  found  ;  but  there  have 
been  discovered  of  late,  in  the  upper  beds  of  the  Lower  Old 
Red  Sandstone  in  Orkney,  the  remains  of  a  small,  delicate 
bivalve,  not  yet  described  or  figured,  but  which  very  much 
resembles  a  Venus.    (See  Plate  V.,  fig.  7.)    In  the  Tilestones 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


91 


of  England,  so  carefully  described  by  Mr.  Murchison  in  his 
Silurian  System,  shells  are  very  abundant ;  and  the  fact  may 
now  be  regarded  as  established,  that  the  Tilestones  of  Eng- 
land belong  to  a  deposit  contemporaneous  with  the  ichthyolite 
beds  of  Caithness  and  Cromarty.  They  occupy  the  same 
place  low  in  the  base  of  the  Old  Red ;  and  there  is  at  least 
one  ichthyolite  common  to  both,*  and  which  does  not  occur 
in  the  superior  strata  of  the  system  in  either  country  —  the 
Dipterus  macrolepidotus.  The  evidence  that  the  fish  and 
shells  lived  in  the  same  period,  and  represent,  therefore,  the 
same  formation,  may  be  summed  up  in  a  single  sentence. 
We  learn  from  the  Geology  of  Caithness  that  this  species  of 
Dipterus  was  unquestionably  contemporary  with  all  the  other 
ichthyolites  described  ;  —  we  learn  from  the  Geology  of  Here- 
fordshire that  the  shells  were  as  unquestionably  contemporary 
with  it.  f  These  —  the  shells  —  are  of  a  singularly  mixed 
character,  regarded  as  a  group,  uniting,  says  Mr.  Murchison, 
forms  at  one  time  deemed  characteristic  of  the  more  modern 
formations,  —  of  the  latter  secondary,  and  even  tertiary  periods, 
—  with  forms  the  most  ancient,  and  which  characterize  the 
molluscous  remains  of  the  transition  rocks.  Turbinated  shells 
and  bivalves  of  well  nigh  the  recent  type  may  be  found 
lying  side  by  side  with  chambered  Orthoceratites  and  Tere- 
bratula.  J 

The  vegetable  remains  of  the  formation  are  numerous, 
but  obscure,  consisting  mostly  of  carbonaceous  markings, 


*  Sihtrian  System,  part  ii.  p.  599. 

t  In  Russia,  too,  as  shown  by  the  recent  discoveries  of  Murchison, 
the  Old  Red  fishes  of  Caithness,  and  the  Old  Red  shells  of  Devon- 
shire, may  be  found  lying  embedded  in  the  same  strata. 

%  Silurian  System,  part  i.  p.  183. 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


such  as  might  be  formed  by  comminuted  sea-weed.  (See 
Plate  VII.)  Some  of  the  impressions  fork  into  branches  at 
acute  angles,  (see  figs.  4,  5,  and  6  ;)  some  affect  a  waved 
outline,  (see  figs.  7  and  8 ;)  most  of  them,  however,  are 
straight  and  undivided.  They  lie  in  some  places  so  thickly 
in  layers  as  to  give  the  stone  in  which  they  occur  a  slaty 
character.  One  of  my  specimens  shows  minute  markings, 
somewhat  resembling  the  bird-like  eyes  of  the  Stigmaria 
Ficoides  of  the  Coal  Measures ;  —  the  branches  of  another 
terminate  in  minute  hooks,  that  remind  one  of  the  hooks  of 
the  young  tendrils  of  the  pea  when  they  first  begin  to  turn. 
(See  fig.  3.)  In  yet  another  there  are  marks  of  the  ligneous 
fibre  ;  when  examined  by  the  glass,  it  resembles  a  bundle  of 
horse-hairs  lying  stretched  in  parallel  lines  ;  and  in  this  speci- 
men alone  have  I  found  aught  approaching  to  proof  of  a  ter- 
restrial origin.  The  deposition  seems  to  have  taken  place  far 
from  land  ;  and  this  lignite,  if  in  reality  such,  had  probably 
drifted  far  ere  it  at  length  became  weightier  than  the  support- 
ing fluid,  and  sank.*    It  is  by  no  means  rare  to  find  fragments 


*  The  organism  here  referred  to  has  been  since  slit  by  the  lapidary, 
and  the  sections  carefully  examined.  It  proves  to  be  unequivocally  a 
true  wood  of  the  coniferous  class.  The  following  is  the  decision  re- 
garding it  of  Mr.  William  Nicol,  of  Edinburgh,  confessedly  one  of  our 
highest  living  authorities  in  that  division  of  fossil  botany  which  takes 
cognizance  of  the  internal  structure  cf  lignites,  and  decides  from  their 
anatomy  their  race  and  family  :  — 

Edinburgh,  19th  July,  1815. 
Dear  Sir:  —  I  have  examined  the  structure  of  the  fossil  wood  which  you  found 
in  the  Old  lied  Sandstone  at  Cromarty,  and  have  no  hesitation  in  stating,  that  the 
reticulated  texture  of  the  transverse  sections,  though  somewhat  compressed,  clearly 
indicates  a  coniferous  origin  ;  but  as  there  is  not  the  slightest  trace  of  a  disk  to  be 
seen  in  the  longitudinal  sections  parallel  to  the  medullary  rays,  it  is  impossible  to 
say  whether  it  belongs  to  the  Pine  or  Araucarian  division.     I  am,  &c*, 

William  Nicol. 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


93 


of  wood  that  have  been  borne  out  to  sea  by  the  gulf  stream 
from  the  shores  of  Mexico  or  the  West  Indian  Islands,  strand- 
ed on  the  rocky  coasts  of  Orkney  and  Shetland. 

The  dissimilarity  which  obtains  between  the  fossils  of  the 
contemporary  formations  of  this  system  in  England  and  Scot- 
land, is  instructive.  The  group  in  the  one  consists  mainly  of 
molluscous  animals  ;  in  the  other,  almost  entirely  of  ichthy- 
olites,  and  what  seems  to  have  been  algae.  Other  localities 
may  present  us  with  yet  different  groups  of  the  same  period 
—  with  the  productions  of  its  coasts,  its  lakes,  and  its  rivers. 
At  present,  we  are  but  beginning  to  know  just  a  little  of  its 
littoral  shells,  and  of  the  fish  of  its  profounder  depths.  These 
last  are  surely  curious  subjects  of  inquiry.  We  cannot  catechise 
our  stony  ichthyolites,  as  the  necromantic  lady  of  the  Arabian 
Nights  did  the  colored  fish  of  the  lake,  which  had  once  been 
a  city,  when  she  touched  their  dead  bodies  with  her  wand,  and 
they  straightway  raised  their  heads  and  replied  to  her  queries. 
We  would  have  many  a  question  to  ask  them  if  we  could  — 
questions  never  to  be  solved.  But  even  the  contemplation  of 
their  remains  is  a  powerful  stimulant  to  thought.  The  won- 
ders of  Geology  exercise  every  faculty  of  the  mind  —  reason; 
memory,  imagination  ;  and  though  we  cannot  put  our  fos- 
sils to  the  question,  it  is  something  to  be  so  aroused  as  to 
be  made  to  put  questions  to  one's  self.  I  have  referred  to 
the  consistency  of  style  which  obtained  among  these  ancient 
fishes  —  the  unity  of  character  which  marked  every  scale, 
plate,  and  fin  of  every  various  family,  and  which  distin- 
guished it  from  the  rest ;  and  who  can  doubt  that  the  same 
shades  of  variety  existed  in  their  habits  and  their  instincts  ? 
We  speak  of  the  infinity  of  Deity  —  of  his  inexhaustible  va- 
riety of  mind  ;  but  we  speak  of  it  until  the  idea  becomes  a 
piece  of  mere  commonplace  in  our  mouths.    It  is  well  to  be 


94 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


brought  to  feel,  if  not  to  conceive  of  it  —  to  be  made  to  know 
that  we  ourselves  are  barren-minded,  and  that  in  Him  "all 
fulness  dwelleth."  Succeeding  creations,  each  with  its 
myriads  of  existences,  do  not  exhaust  Him.  He  never  re- 
peats Himself.  The  curtain  drops,  at  his  command,  over 
one  scene  of  existence  full  of  wisdom  and  beauty ;  it  rises 
again,  and  all  is  glorious,  wise,  and  beautiful  as  before,  and 
all  is  new,  Who  can  sum  up  the  amount  of  wisdom  whose 
record  He  has  written  in  the  rocks  —  wisdom  exhibited  in 
the  succeeding  creations  of  earth,  ere  man  was,  but  which 
was  exhibited  surely  not  in  vain  ?  May  we  not  say  with 
Milton,  — 

Think  not,  though  men  were  none, 
That  heaven  could  want  spectators,  God  want  praise  ; 
Millions  of  spiritual  creatures  walked  the  earth, 
And  these  with  ceaseless  praise  his  works  beheld  ? 

It  is  well  to  return  on  the  record,  and  to  read  in  its  une- 
quivocal characters  the  lessons  which  it  was  intended  to 
teach.  Infidelity  has  often  misinterpreted  its  meaning,  but 
not  the  less  on  that  account  has  it  been  inscribed  for  purposes 
alike  wise  and  benevolent.  Is  it  nothing  to  be  taught,  with  a 
demonstrative  evidence  which  the  metaphysician  cannot  sup- 
ply, that  races  are  not  eternal  —  that  every  family  had  its 
beginning,  and  that  whole  creations  have  come  to  an  end  ? 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

The  Lines  of  the  Geographer  rarely  right  Lines.  —  These  last,  how- 
ever, always  worth  looking  at  when  they  occur.  —  Striking  Instance 
in  the  Line  of  the  Great  Caledonian  Yalley.  —  Indicative  of  the 
Direction  in  which  the  Volcanic  Agencies  have  operated.  —  Sec- 
tions of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  furnished  by  the  Granitic  Emi- 
nences of  the  Line.  —  Illustration.  —  Lias  of  the  Moray  Frith.  — 
Surmisings  regarding  its  Original  Extent.  —  These  lead  to  an  Ex- 
ploratory Ramble.  —  Narrative.  —  Phenomena  exhibited  in  the 
course  of  half  an  hour's  Walk.  —  The  little  Bay.  —  Its  Strata  and 
their  Organisms. 

The  natural  boundaries  of  the  geographer  are  rarely  de- 
scribed by  right  lines.  Whenever  these  occur,  however,  the 
geologist  may  look  for  something  remarkable.  There  is  one 
very  striking  example  furnished  by  the  north  of  Scotland. 
The  reader,  in  consulting  a  map  of  the  kingdom,  will  find  that 
the  edge  of  a  ruler,  laid  athwart  the  country  in  a  direction 
from  south-west  to  north-east,  touches  the  whole  northern 
side  of  the  great  Caledonian  Valley,  with  its  long,  straight 
line  of  lakes  ;  and  onwards,  beyond  the  valley's  termination 
at  both  ends,  the  whole  northern  side  of  Loch  Eil  and  Loch 
Linnhe,  and  the  whole  of  the  abrupt  and  precipitous  northern 
shores  of  the  Moray  Frith,  to  the  extreme  point  of  Tarbat 
Ness  —  a  right  line  of  considerably  more  than  a  hundred 
miles.  Nor  does  the  geography  of  the  globe  furnish  a  line 
better  defined  by  natural  marks.  There  is  both  rampart  and 
fosse.  On  the  one  hand  we  have  the  rectilinear  lochs  and 
lakes,  with  an  average  profundity  of  depth  more  than  equal 
to  that  of  the  German  Ocean,  and,  added  to  these,  the  rec- 
tilinear lines  of  frith ;  on  the  other  hand,  with  but  few  inter- 


96 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


ruptions,  there  is  an  inclined  wall  of  rock,  which  rises  at  a 
steep  angle  in  the  interior  to  nearly  two  thousand  feet  over 
the  level  of  the  Great  Canal,  and  overhangs  the  sea  towards 
its  northern  termination,  in  precipices  of  more  than  a  hun- 
dred yards.* 

The  direction  of  this  rampart  and  fosse  —  this  Roman 
wall  of  Scottish  geological  history  —  seems  to  have  been 
that  in  which  the  volcanic  agencies  chiefly  operated  in  up- 
heaving the  entire  island  from  the  abyss.  The  line  survives 
as  a  sort  of  foot-track,  hollowed  by  the  frequent  tread  of 
earthquakes,  to  mark  the  course  in  which  they  journeyed. 
Like  one  of  the  great  lines  in  a  trigonometrical  survey,  it 
enables  us,  too,  to  describe  the  lesser  lines,  and  to  determine 
their  average  bearing.  The  volcanic  agencies  must  have  ex- 
tended  athwart  the  country  from  south-ioest  to  north-east. 
Mark  in  a  map  of  the  island  —  all  the  better  if  it  be  a  geo- 
logical one  —  the  line  in  which  most  of  our  mountain  ranges 
stretch  across  from  the  German  Ocean  to  the  Atlantic,  —  the 
line,  too,  in  which  our  friths,  lochs,  and  bays,  on  both  the 
eastern  and  western  coasts,  and  especially  those  of  the  latter, 
run  into  the  interior.  Mark,  also,  the  line  of  the  geological 
formations,  where  least  broken  by  insulated  groups  of  hills  — 
the  line,  for  instance,  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  belt,  which 
flanks  the  southern  base  of  the  Grampians  —  the  nearly  parallel 
line  of  our  Scottish  Coal-field,  in  its  course  from  sea  to  sea  — 
the  line  of  the  Grauwacke,  which  forms  so  large  a  portion 
of  the  south  of  Scotland  —  the  line  of  the  English  Coal- 
field, of  the  Lias,  of  the  Oolite,  of  the  Chalk  —  and  how  in 


*  The  valley  of  the  Jordan,  from  the  village  of  Laish  to  the  south- 
ern extremity  of  the  Dead  Sea,  furnishes  another  very  remarkable 
instance  of  a  geographical  right  line. 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


97 


this  process  of  diagonal  lining,  if  I  may  so  speak,  the  south- 
eastern portion  of  England  comes  to  he  cut  off  from  the 
secondary  formations  altogether,  and,  but  for  the  denudation 
of  the  valley  of  the  Weald,  would  have  exhibited  only  ter- 
tiary depositions.  In  all  these  lines,  whether  of  mountains, 
lakes,  friths,  or  formations,  there  is  an  approximation  to  par- 
allelism with  the  line  of  the  great  Caledonian  valley  —  proofs 
that  the  upheaving  agency  from  beneath  must  have  acted  in 
this  direction  from  some  unknown  cause,  during  all  the  im- 
mensely extended  term  of  its  operations,  and  along  the  entire 
length  of  the  island.  It  is  a  fact  not  unworthy  of  remark, 
that  the  profound  depths  of  Loch  Ness  undulated  in  strange 
sympathy  with  the  reeling  towers  and  crashing  walls  of  Lis- 
bon, during  the  great  earthquake  of  1755 ;  and  that  the  im- 
pulse, true  to  its  ancient  direction,  sent  the  waves  in  huge 
furrows  to  the  north-east  and  the  south-west. 

The  north-eastern  portion  of  this  rectilinear  wall  or  chain 
runs,  for  about  thirty  miles,  through  an  Old  Red  Sandstone 
district.  The  materials  which  compose  it  are  as  unlike  those 
of  the  plain  out  of  which  it  arises,  as  the  materials  of  a 
stone  dike,  running  half-way  into  a  field,  are  unlike  the  vege- 
table mould  which  forms  the  field's  surface.  The  ridge 
itself  is  of  a  granitic  texture  —  a  true  gneiss.  At  its  base 
we  find  only  conglomerates,  sandstones,  shales,  and  stratified 
clays,  and  these  lying  against  it  in  very  high  angles.  Hence 
the  geological  interest  of  this  lower  portion  of  the  wall.  As 
has  been  shrewdly  remarked  by  Mr.  Murchison,^  in  one  of 
his  earlier  papers,  the  gneiss  seems  to  have  been  forced 
through  the  sandstone  from  beneath,  in  a  solid,  not  a  fluid 
form ;  and  as  the  ridge  a-top  is  a  narrow  one,  and  the  sides 


*  See  Transactions  of  the  London  Geological  Society  for  1828,  p.  354. 
9 


93 


THE   OLD  KED  SANDSTONE. 


remarkably  abrupt  —  an  excellent  wedge,  both  in  consistency 
and  form  —  instead  of  having  acted  on  the  surrounding  dep- 
ositions, as  most  of  the  south  country  traps  have  done  that 
have  merely  issued  from  a  vent,  and  overlaid  the  upper 
strata,  it  has  torn  up  the  entire  formation  from  the  very  bot- 
tom. Imagine  a  large  wedge  forced  from  below  through  a 
sheet  of  thick  ice  on  a  river  or  pond.  First  the  ice  rises  in 
an  angle,  that  becomes  sharper  and  higher  as  the  wedge 
rises  ;  then  it  cracks  and  opens,  presenting  its  upturned  edges 
on  both  sides,  and  through  comes  the  wedge.  And  this  is  a 
very  different  process,  be  it  observed,  from  what  takes  place 
when  the  ice  merely  cracks,  and  the  water  issues  through 
the  crack.  In  the  one  case  there  is  a  rent,  and  water  dif- 
fused over  the  surface  ;  in  the  other,  there  is  the  projecting 
wedge,  flanked  by  the  upturned  edges  of  the  ice  ;  and  these 
edges,  of  course,  serve  as  indices  to  decide  regarding  the 
ice's  thickness,  and  the  various  layers  of  which  it  is  com- 
posed. Now,  such  are  the  phenomena  exhibited  by  the 
wedge-like  granitic  ridge.  The  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone, 
tilted  up  against  it  on  both  sides,  at  an  angle  of  about 
eighty,  exhibits  in  some  parts  a  section  of  well  nigh  two 
thousand  feet,  stretching  from  the  lower  conglomerate  to 
the  soft,  unfossiliferous  sandstone,  which  forms  in  Hoss  and 
Cromarty  the  upper  beds  of  the  formation.  There  is  a 
mighty  advantage  to  the  geologist  in  this  arrangement. 
When  books  are  packed  up  in  a  deep  box  or  chest,  we  have 
to  raise  the  upper  tier  ere  we  can  see  the  tier  below,  and  this 
second  tier  ere  we  can  arrive  at  a  third,  and  so  on  to  the  bot- 
tom. But  when  well  arranged  on  the  shelves  of  a  library, 
we  have  merely  to  run  the  eye  along  their  lettered  backs, 
and  we  can  thus  form  an  acquaintance  with  them  at  a  glance, 
which  in  the  other  case  would  have  cost  us  a  good  deal  of 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


trouble.  Now,  in  the  neighborhood  of  this  granitic  wedge, 
or  wall,  the  strata  arc  arranged,  not  like  books  in  a  box, — 
such  was  their  original  position,  —  but  like  books  on  the 
shelves  of  a  library.  They  have  been  unpacked  and  arranged 
by  the  uptilting  agent ;  and  the  knowledge  of  them,  which 
could  only  have  been  attained  in  their  first  circumstances  by 
perforating  them  with  a  shaft  of  immense  depth,  may  now 
be  acquired  simply  by  passing  over  their  edges.  A  morn- 
ing's saunter  gives  us  what  would  have  cost,  but  for  the 
upheaving  granite,  the  labor  of  a  hundred  miners  for  five 
years. 

By  far  the  greater  portion  of  the  life  of  the  writer  was 
spent  within  less  than  half  an  hour's  walk  of  one  of  these 
upturned  edges.  I  have  described  the  granitic  rock,  with 
reference  to  the  disturbance  it  has  occasioned  as  a  wedge 
forced  from  below,  and  with  reference  to  its  rectilinear  posi- 
tion in  the  sandstone  district  which  it  traverses,  as  a  stone 
wall  running  half-way  into  a  field.  It  may  communicate  a 
still  corrector  and  livelier  idea  to  think  of  it  as  a  row  of 
wedges,  such  as  one  sometimes  sees  in  a  quarry  when  the  work- 
men are  engaged  in  cutting  out  from  the  mass  some  immense 
block,  intended  to  form  a  stately  column  or  huge  architrave. 
The  eminences,  like  the  wedges,  are  separated  ;  in  some 
places  the  sandstone  lies  between  —  in  others  there  occur 
huge  chasms  filled  by  the  sea.  The  Friths  of  Cromarty  and 
Beauly,  for  instance,  and  the  Bay  of  Munlochy,  open  into 
the  interior  between  these  wedge-like  eminences  ;  —  the  well- 
known  Sutors  of  Cromarty  represent  two  of  the  wedges  ; 
and  it  was  the  section  furnished  by  the  Southern  Sutor  that 
lay  so  immediately  in  the  writer's  neighborhood.  The  line 
of  the  Cromarty  Frith  forms  an  angle  of  about  thirty-five 
degrees  with  that  of  the  granitic  line  of  wedge-like  hills  which 


100 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


it  bisects  ;  and  hence  the  peculiar  shape  of  that  tongue  of 
land  which  forms  the  lower  portion  of  the  Black  Isle,  and 
which,  washed  by  the  Moray  Frith  on  the  one  side,  and  by  the 
Frith  of  Cromarty  on  the  other,  has  its  apex  occupied  by  the 
Southern  Sutor.  Imagine  a  lofty  promontory  somewhat  re- 
sembling a  huge  spear  thrust  horizontally  into  the  sea — a 
ponderous  mass  of  granitic  gneiss,  of  about  a  mile  in  length, 
forming  the  head,  and  a  rectilinear  line  of  the  Old  Red  Sand- 
stone, more  than  ten  miles  in  length,  forming  the  shaft ;  and 
such  is  the  appearance  which  this  tongue  of  land  presents, 
when  viewed  from  its  north-western  boundary,  the  Cromarty 
Frith.  When  viewed  from  the  Moray  Frith,  —  its  south-west- 
ern boundary,  —  we  see  the  same  granitic  spear-head,  but 
find  the  line  of  the  shaft  knobbed  by  the  other  granitic 
eminences  of  the  chain. 

Now  on  this  tongue  of  land  I  first  broke  ground  as  a  geolo- 
gist. The  quarry  described  in  my  introductory  chapter,  as 
that  in  which  my  notice  was  first  attracted  by  the  ripple  mark- 
ings, opens  on  the  Cromarty  Frith  side  of  this  huge  spear- 
shaft  ;  the  quarry  to  which  I  removed  immediately  after,  and 
beside  which  I  found  the  fossils  of  the  Lias,  opens  on  its 
Moray  Frith  side.  The  uptilted  section  of  sandstone  occurs 
on  both  sides,  where  the  shaft  joins  to  the  granitic  spear-head, 
but  the  Lias  I  found  on  the  Moray  Frith  side  alone.  It  studs 
the  coast  in  detached  patches,  sorely  worn  by  the  incessant 
lashings  of  the  Frith  ;  and  each  patch  bears  an  evident  rela- 
tion, in  the  place  it  occupies,  to  a  corresponding  knob  or 
wedge  in  the  granitic  line.  The  Northern  Sutor,  as  has  been 
just  said,  is  one  of  these  knobs  or  wedges.  It  has  its  accom- 
panying patch  of  Lias  upheaved  at  its  base,  and  lying  uncon- 
formably,  not  only  to  its  granitic  strata,  but  also  to  its  subordi- 
nate sandstones.    The  Southern  Sutor,  another  of  these  knobs, 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


101 


has  also  its  accompanying  patch  of  Lias,  which,  though  lying 
beyond  the  fall  of  the  tide,  strews  the  beach,  after  every  storm 
from  the  east,  with  its  shales  and  its  fossils.  The  hill  of  Eathie 
is  yet  another  knob  of  the  series,  and  it,  too,  has  its  Lias 
patch.  The  granitic  wedges  have  not  only  uptilted  the  sand- 
stone, but  they  have  also  upheaved  the  superincumbent  Lias, 
which,  but  for  their  agency,  would  have  remained  buried 
under  the  waters  of  the  Frith,  and  its  ever  accumulating 
banks  of  sand  and  gravel.  I  had  remarked  at  an  early  period 
the  correspondence  of  the  granitic  knobs  with  the  Lias  patches, 
and  striven  to  realize  the  original  place  and  position  of  the 
latter  ere  the  disturbing  agent  had  upcast  them  to  the  light. 
What,  I  have  asked,  was  the  extent  of  this  comparatively 
modern  formation  in  this  part  of  the  world,  ere  the  line  of 
wedges  were  forced  through  from  below  ?  A  wedge  struck 
through  the  ice  of  a  pond  towards  the  centre  breaks  its  con- 
tinuity, and  we  find  the  ice  on  both  sides  the  wedge  ;  where- 
as, when  struck  through  at  the  pond  edge,  it  merely  raises  the 
ice  from  the  bank,  and  we  find  it,  in  consequence,  on  but  one 
side  the  wedge.  Whether,  have  I  often  inquired,  wTere  the 
granitic  wedges  of  this  line  forced  through  the  Lias  at  one  of 
its  edges,  or  at  a  comparatively  central  point  ?  and  about  ten 
years  ago  I  set  myself  to  ascertain  whether  I  could  not  solve 
the  question.  The  Southern  Sutor  is  a  wedge  open  to  exam- 
ination on  both  its  sides  ;  —  the  Moray  Frith  washes  it  upon 
one  side,  the  Cromarty  Frith  on  the  other.  Was  the  Lias 
to  be  found  on  both  its  sides?  If  so,  the  wedge  must  have 
been  forced  through  the  formation,  not  merely  beside  it.  It 
occurs,  as  I  have  said,  on  the  Moray  Frith  side  of  the  wedge  ; 
and  I  resolved,  on  carefully  exploring  the  Frith  of  Cromarty, 
to  try  whether  it  did  not  occur  on  that  side  too. 

With  this  object  I  set  out  on  an  exploratory  excursion,  on  a 
9* 


102 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


delightful  morning  of  August,  1830.  The  tide  was  falling  ; 
it  had  already  reached  the  line  of  half  ebb  ;  and  from  the 
Southern  Sutor  to  the  low,  long  promontory  on  which  the 
town  of  Cromarty  is  built,  there  extended  a  broad  belt  of 
mingled  sand-banks  and  pools,  accumulations  of  boulders,  and 
shingle,  and  large  tracts  darkened  with  algae.  I  passed  direct 
by  a  grassy  pathway  to  the  Sutor,  the  granitic  spear-head  of 
a  late  illustration,  —  and  turned,  when  I  reached  the  curved 
and  contorted  gneiss,  to  trace  through  the  broad  belt  left  by 
the  retiring  waters,  and  in  a  line  parallel  to  what  I  have 
described  as  the  shaft  of  the  huge  spear,  the  beds  and  strata 
of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  in  their  ascending  succession.  I 
first  crossed  the  conglomerate  base  of  the  system,  here 
little  more  than  a  hundred  feet  in  thickness.  The  cease- 
less dash  of  the  waves,  which  smooth  most  other  rocks, 
has  a  contrary  effect  on  this  bed,  except  in  a  few  localities, 
where  its  arenaceous  cement  of  base  is  much  indurated. 
Under  both  the  Northern  and  Southern  Sutors  the  softer 
cement  yields  to  the  incessant  action,  while  the  harder  peb- 
bles stand  out  in  bold  relief ;  so  that,  wherever  it  presents  a 
mural  front  to  the  breakers,  we  are  reminded,  by  its  appear- 
ance, of  the  artificial  rock  work  of  the  architect.  It  roughens 
as  the  rocks  around  it  polish.  Quitting  the  conglomerate,  I 
next  passed  over  a  thick  bed  of  coarse  reel  and  yellow  sand- 
stone, with  here  and  there  a  few  pebbles  sticking  from  its 
surface,  and  here  and  there  a  stratum  of  finer-grained  fissile 
sandstone  inserted  between  the  rougher  strata:  I  then  crossed 
over  a  strata  of  an  impure  grayish  limestone,  and  a  slaty 
clay,  abounding,  as  I  long  afterwards  ascertained,  in  ichthyo- 
lites  and  vegetable  remains.  There  are  minute  veins  in  the 
limestone  (apparently  cracks  filled  up)  of  a  jet  black  bitu- 
minous substance,  resembling  anthracite  ;  the  stratified  clay 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


103 


is  mottled  by  layers  of  semi-aluminous,  semi-calcareous  nodules, 
arranged  like  layers  of  flint  in  the  upper  Chalk.  These  nodules, 
when  cut  up  and  polished,  present  very  agreeable  combinations 
of  color  ;  there  is  generally  an  outer  ring  of  reddish  brown,  an 
inner  ring  of  pale  yellow,  and  a  central  patch  of  red,  and  the 
whole  is  prettily  veined  with  dark-colored  carbonate  of  lime.* 
Passing  onwards  and  upwards  in  the  line  of  the  strata,  I  next 
crossed  over  a  series  of  alternate  beds  of  coarse  sandstone 
and  stratified  clay,  and  then  lost  sight  of  the  rock  altogether, 
in  a  wide  waste  of  shingle  and  boulder-stones,  resting  on  a 
dark  blue  argillaceous  diluvium,  sometimes  employed  in  that 
part  of  the  country,  from  its  tenacious  and  impermeable  char- 
acter, for  lining  ponds  and  dams,  and  as  mortar  for  the 
foundations  of  low-lying  houses,  exposed  in  wet  weather  to 
the  sudden  rise  of  water.  The  numerous  boulders  of  this 
tract  have  their  story  to  tell,  and  it  is  a  curious  one.  The 
Southern  Sutor,  with  its  multitudinous  fragments  of  gneiss, 
torn  from  its  sides  by  the  sea,  or  loosened  by  the  action  of 
frosts  and  storms,  and  rolled  down  its  precipices,  is  only  a 
few  hundred  yards  away;  —  its  base,  where  these  lie  thick- 
est, has  been  swept  by  tempests,  chiefly  from  the  east,  for 
thousands  and  thousands  of  years  ;  and  the  direct  effect  of 
these  tempests,  regarded  as  transporting  agents,  would  have 
been  to  strew  this  stony  tract  with  those  detached  fragments. 
The  same  billow  that  sends  its  long  roll  from  the  German 
Ocean  to  sweep  the  base  of  the  Sutor,  and  to  leap  up  against 
its  precipices  to  the  height  of  eighty  and  a  hundred  feet, 
breaks  in  foam,  only  a  minute  after,  over  this  stony  tract ; 


*  A  concretionary  limestone  of  the  Old  Red  system  in  England, 
variegated  with  purple  and  green,  was  at  one  time  wrought  as  a  mar- 
ble. —  Silurian  System,  Part  I.  p.  176. 


104 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


which  has,  in  consequence,  its  sprinkling  of  fragments  of 
gneiss,  transported  hy  an  agency  so  obvious.  But  for  every 
one  such  fragment  which  it  bears,  we  find  at  least  ten  boul- 
ders that  have  been  borne  for  forty  and  fifty  miles  in  the  op- 
posite direction  from  the  interior  of  the  country  —  a  direction 
in  which  no  transporting  agency  now  exists.  The  tempests 
of  thousands  of  years  have  conveyed  for  but  a  few  hundred 
yards  not  more  than  a  tithe  of  the  materials  of  this  tract; 
nine  tenths  of  the  whole  have  been  conveyed  by  an  older 
agency  over  spaces  of  forty  and  fifty  miles.  How  immense- 
ly more  powerful,  then,  or  how  immensely  protracted  in  its 
operation,  must  that  older  agency  have  been  ! 

I  passed  onwards,  and  reached  a  little  bay,  or,  rather,  an- 
gular indentation  of  the  coast,  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
town.  It  was  laid  bare  by  the  tide,  this  morning,  far  beyond 
its  outer  opening ;  and  the  huge,  table-like  boulder,  which 
occupies  nearly  its  centre,  and  to  which,  in  a  former  chapter, 
I  have  had  occasion  to  refer,  held  but  a  middle  place  between 
the  still  darkened  flood-line  that  ran  high  along  the  beach, 
and  the  brown  line  of  ebb  that  bristled  far  below  with  forests 
of  the  rough-stemmed  tangle.  This  little  bay,  or  inflection 
of  the  coast,  serves  as  a  sort  of  natural  wear  in  detaining 
floating  drift- weed,  and  is  often  found  piled,  after  violent 
storms  from  the  east,  with  accumulations,  many  yards  in  ex- 
tent, and  several  feet  in  depth,  of  kelp  and  tangle,  mixed 
with  zoophytes  and  mollusca,  and  the  remains  of  fish  killed 
among  the  shallows  by  the  tempest.  Early  in  the  last  cen- 
tury, a  large  body  of  herrings,  pursued  by  whales  and  por- 
poises, were  stranded  in  it,  to  the  amount  of  several  hundred 
barrels  ;  and  it  is  said  that  salt  and  cask  failed  the  packers 
when  but  comparatively  a  small  portion  of  the  shoal  were 
cured,  and  that  by  much  the  greatest  part  of  them  were  car- 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


105 


ried  away  by  the  neighboring  farmers  for  manure.  Ever 
since  the  formation  of  the  present  coast-line,  this  natural  wear 
has  been  arresting,  tide  after  tide,  its  heaps  of  organic  matter, 
but  the  circumstances  favorable  to  their  preservation  have 
been  wanting :  they  ferment  and  decay  when  driven  high  on 
the  beach  ;  and  the  next  spring-tide,  accompanied  by  a  gale 
from  the  west,  sweeps  every  vestige  of  them  away  ;  and  so, 
after  the  lapse  of  many  centuries,  we  find  no  other  organisms 
among  the  rounded  pebbles  that  form  the  beach  of  this  little 
bay,  than  merely  a  few  broken  shells,  and  occasionally  a 
mouldering  fish-bone.  Thus  very  barren  formations  may 
belong  to  periods  singularly  rich  in  organic  existences.  When 
what  is  now  the  little  bay  was  the  bottom  of  a  profound 
ocean,  and  far  from  any  shore,  the  circumstances  for  the 
preservation  of  its  organisms  must  have  been  much  more 
favorable.  In  no  locality  in  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  with 
which  I  am  acquainted  have  such  beautifully  preserved  fos- 
sils been  found.    But  I  anticipate. 

In  the  middle  of  the  little  bay,  and  throughout  the  greater 
part  of  its  area,  I  found  the  rock  exposed  —  a  circumstance 
which  I  had  marked  many  years  before,  when  a  mere  boy, 
without  afterwards  recurring  to  it  as  one  of  interest.  But  I 
had  now  learned  to  look  at  rocks  with  another  eye  ;  and  the 
thought  which  first  suggested  itself  to  me  regarding  the  rock 
of  the  little  bay  was,  that  I  had  found  the  especial  object  of 
my  search  —  the  Lias.  The  appearances  are  in  some  re- 
spects not  dissimilar.  The  Lias  of  the  north  of  Scotland  is 
represented  in  some  localities  by  dark-colored,  unctuous 
clays,  in  others  by  grayish  black  sandstones,  that  look  like 
indurated  mud,  and  in  others  by  beds  of  black  fissile  shale, 
alternating  with  bands  of  coarse,  impure  limestone,  and 
studded  between  the  bands  with  limestone  nodules  of  richer 


106 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


quality  and  finer  grain.  The  rock  laid  bare  in  the  little  bay 
is  a  stratified  clay,  of  a  gray  color  tinged  with  olive,  and  oc- 
curring in  beds  separated  by  indurated  bands  of  gray,  mica- 
ceous sandstone.  They  also  abound  in  calcareous  nodules. 
The  dip  of  the  strata,  too,  is  very  different  from  that  of  the 
beds  which  lean  against  the  gneiss  of  the  Sutor.  Instead  of 
an  angle  of  eighty,  it  presents  an  angle  of  less  than  eight. 
The  rocks  of  the  little  bay  must  have  lain  beyond  the  dis- 
turbing, uptilting  influence  of  the  granitic  wedge.  So 
thickly  are  the  nodules  spread  over  the  surface  of  some  of 
the  beds,  that  they  reminded  me  of  floats  of  broken  ice  on 
the  windward  side  of  a  lake  after  a  few  days'  thaw,  when 
the  edges  of  the  fragments  are  smoothed  and  rounded,  and 
they  press  upon  one  another,  so  as  to  cover,  except  in  the 
angular  interstices,  the  entire  surface. 

I  set  myself  carefully  to  examine.  The  first  nodule  I  laid 
open  contained  a  bituminous  looking  mass,  in  which  I  could 
trace  a  few  pointed  bones  and  a  few  minute  scales.  The 
next  abounded  in  rhomboidal  and  finely  enamelled  scales,  of 
much  larger  size  and  more  distinct  character.  I  wrought  on 
with  the  eagerness  of  a  discoverer  entering  for  the  first  time 
in  a  terra  incognita  of  wonders.  Almost  every  fragment  of 
clay,  every  splinter  of  sandstone,  every  limestone  nodule, 
contained  its  organism  —  scales,  spines,  plates,  bones,  entire 
fish ;  but  not  one  organism  of  the  Lias  could  I  find  —  no  am- 
monites, no  belemnites,  no  gryphites,  no  shells  of  any  kind  : 
the  vegetable  impressions  were  entirely  different ;  and  not  a 
single  scale,  plate,  or  ichthyodorulite  could  I  identify  wTith 
those  of  the  newer  formation.  I  had  got  into  a  different 
world,  and  among  the  remains  of  a  different  creation;  but 
where  was  its  proper  place  in  the  scale  ?  The  beds  of  the 
little  bay  are  encircled  by  thick  accumulations  of  diluvium 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


107 


and  debris,  nor  could  I  trace  their  relation  to  a  single  known 
rock.  I  was  struck,  as  I  well  might,  by  the  utter  strangeness 
of  the  forms  —  the  oar-like  arms  of  the  Pterichthys  and  its 
tortoise-like  plates  —  the  strange,  buckler-looking  head  of 
the  Coccosteus,  which,  I  suppose,  might  possibly  be  the  back 
of  a  small  tortoise,  though  the  tubercles  reminded  me  rather 
of  the  skin  of  the  shark  —  the  polished  scales  and  plates  of 
the  Osteolepis —  the  spined  and  scaled  fins  of  the  Cheiracan- 
thus —  above  all,  the  one-sided  tail  of  at  least  eight  out  of 
the  ten  or  twelve  varieties  of  fossil  which  the  deposit  con- 
tained. All  together  excited  and  astonished  me.  But  some 
time  elapsed  ere  I  learned  to  distinguish  the  nicer  generic  dif- 
ferences of  the  various  organisms  of  the  formation.  I  found 
fragments  of  the  Pterichthys  on  this  morning ;  but  I  date  its 
discovery,  in  relation  to  the  mind  of  the  discoverer,  more  than 
a  twelvemonth  later.*  I  confounded  the  Cheir acanthus ,  too, 
with  its  single-spined,  membranous  dorsal,  with  Diplacantlius 
ichthyolite,  furnished  with  two  such  dorsals ;  and  the  Diplop- 
terus  with  the  Osteolepis.    Still,  however,  I  saw  enough  to 

*  I  find,  by  some  notes,  which  had  escaped  my  notice  when  draw- 
ing up  for  the  Witness  newspaper  the  sketches  now  expanded  into  a 
volume,  that  in  the  year  1834  I  furnished  the  collection  of  a  geologi- 
cal friend,  the  Rev.  John  Swanson,  minister  of  the  parish  of  Small 
Isles,  in  the  Outer  Hebrides,  with  a  well-marked  specimen  of  the 
Pterichthys  Miller i.  The  circumstance  pleasingly  reminds  me  of  the 
first  of  all  my  early  acquaintance,  who  learned  to  deem  the  time  not 
idly  squandered  that  was  spent  in  exploring  the  wonders  of  bygone 
creations.  Does  the  minister  of  Small  Isles  still  remember  the  boy 
who  led  him  in  quest  of  petrifactions  —  himself  a  little  boy  at  the 
time  —  to  a  deep,  solitary  cave  on  the  Moray  Frith,  where  they 
lingered  amidst  stalactites  and  mosses  till  the  wild  sea  had  surround- 
ed them  unmarked,  barring  all  chance  of  retreat,  and  the  dark  night 
came  on  ? 


108 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


exhilarate  and  interest :  I  wrought  on  till  the  advancing  tide 
came  splashing  over  the  nodules,  and  a  powerful  August  sun 
had  risen  towards  the  middle  sky ;  and  were  I  to  sum  up  all 
my  happier  hours,  the  hour  would  not  be  forgotten  in  which 
I  sat  down  on  a  rounded  boulder  of  granite,. by  the  edge  of 
the  sea,  when  the  last  bed  was  covered,  and  spread  out  on  the 
beach  before  me  the  spoils  of  the  morning. 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


109 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Further  Discoveries  of  the  Ichthyolite  Beds.  —  Found  in  one  Local- 
ity under  a  Bed  of  Peat.  —  Discovered  in  another  beneath  an  an- 
cient Burying-ground.  — In  a  third  underlying  the  Lias  Formation. 
—  In  a  fourth  overtopped  by  a  still  older  Sandstone  Deposit. — 
Difficulties  in  ascertaining  the  true  Place  of  a  newly-discovered 
Formation.  —  Caution  against  drawing  too  hasty  Inferences  from 
the  mere  circumstance  of  Neighborhood.  —  The  Writer  receives  his 
first  Assistance  from  without.  —  Geological  Appendix  of  the  Messrs. 
Anderson,  of  Inverness.  —  Further  Assistance  from  the  Researches 
of  Agassiz.  —  Suggestions.  —  Dr.  John  Malcolmson.  —  His  Exten- 
sive Discoveries  in  Moray.  —  He  submits  to  Agassiz  a  Drawing  of 
the  PtericJithys.  —  Place  of  the  Ichthyolites  in  the  Scale  at  length 
determined. — Two  distinct  Platforms  of  Being  in  the  Formation 
to  which  they  belong. 

I  commenced  forming  a  small  collection,  and  set  myself 
carefully  to  examine  the  neighboring  rocks  for  organisms  of 
a  similar  character.  The  eye  becomes  practised  in  such  re- 
searches, and  my  labors  were  soon  repaid.  Directly  above 
the  little  bay  there  is  a  cornfield,  and  beyond  the  field  a  wood 
of  forest  trees;  and  in  this  wood,  in  the  bottom  of  a  water- 
course, scooped  out  of  the  rock  through  a  bed  of  peat,  I 
found  the  stratified  clay  charged  with  scales.  A  few  hun- 
dred yards  farther  to  the  west  there  is  a  deep,  wooded  ravine 
cut  through  a  thick  bed  of  red  diluvial  clay.  The  top  of  the 
bank  directly  above  is  occupied  by  the  ruins  of  an  ancient 
chapel,  and  a  group  of  moss-grown  tombstones  ;  and  in  the 
gorge  of  this  ravine,  underlying  the  little  field  of  graves  by 
about  sixty  feet,  I  discovered  a  still  more  ancient  place  of 
sepulture  - —  that  of  the  ichthyolites.  I  explored  every  bank, 
10 


110 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


rock,  and  ravine  on  the  northern  or  Cromarty  Frith  side  of 
the  tongue  of  land,  with  its  terminal  point  of  granitic  gneiss, 
to  which  I  have  had  such  frequent  occasion  to  refer,  and  then 
turned  to  explore  the  southern,  or  Moray  Frith  side,  in  the 
rectilinear  line  of  the  great  valley.  And  here  I  was  success- 
ful on  a  larger  scale.  A  range  of  lofty  sandstone  clhTs,  hol- 
lowed by  the  sea,  extends  for  a  distance  of  about  two  miles 
between  two  of  the  granitic  knobs  or  wedges  of  the  line  — 
the  Southern  Sutor  and  the  hill  of  Eathie.  And  along  well 
nigh  the  entire  length  of  this  range  of  cliffs,  I  succeeded  in 
tracing  a  continuous  ichthyolite  bed,  abounding  in  remains, 
and  lying  far  below  the  Lias,  and  unconformable  to  it.  I  pur- 
sued my  researches,  and  in  the  sides  of  a  romantic  precipi- 
tous dell,  through  which  the  Burn  of  Eathie  —  a  small,  mossy 
stream  —  finds  its  way  to  the  Moray  Frith,  I  again  discovered 
the  fish-beds  running  deep  into  the  interior  of  the  country,  with 
immense  strata  of  a  pale  yellow  sandstone  resting  over  them, 
and  strata  of  a  chocolate  red  lying  below.  But  their  place  in 
the  geological  scale  was  still  to  fix. 

I  had  seen  enough  to  convince  me  that  they  form  a  contin- 
uous convex  stratum  in  the  sandstone  spear-shaft,  covering 
it  saddle- wise  from  side  to  side,  dipping  towards  the  Moray 
Frith  on  the  south,  and  to  the  Cromarty  Frith  on  the  north  — 
that,  as  in  a  bona  fide  spear-shaft,  the  annual  ring  or  layer  of 
growth  of  one  season  is  overlaid  by  the  annual  rings  of  suc- 
ceeding seasons,  and  underlaid  by  those  of  preceding  ones ; 
so  this  huge  semi-ring  of  fossiliferous  clays  and  limestones 
had  its  underlying  semi-ring  of  Red  Sandstone,  and  its  over- 
lying semi-rings  of  yellow,  of  red,  and  of  gray  sandstone.  1 
knew,  besides,  that  beneath  there  was  a  semi-ring  of  conglom- 
erate, the  base  of  the  system  ;  and  that,  for  more  than  two 
hundred  yards  upwards,  ring  followed  ring  in  unbroken 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


Ill 


succession  —  now  sandstone,  now  limestone,  now  stratified 
clay.  But  though  intimately  acquainted  with  these  lower 
rocks  for  more  than  a  hundred  fathoms  from  their  base  up- 
wards, and  with  the  upper  rocks  on  both  sides  the  ichthyo- 
litic  bed  for  .more  than  a  hundred  feet,  there  was  an  inter- 
vening hiatus,  whose  extent  at  this  period  I  found  it  impos- 
sible to  ascertain.  And  hence  my  uncertainty  regarding 
the  place  of  the  ichthyolites,  seeing  that  whole  formations 
might  be  represented  by  the  occurring  gap.  On  the  Moray 
Frith  side,  where  the  sections  are  of  huge  extent,  a  doubtful 
repeat  in  the  strata  at  one  point  of  junction,  and  an  abrupt 
fault  at  another,  cuts  off  the  upper  series  of  beds  to  which  the 
organisms  belong,  from  the  lower  to  which  the  great  conglom- 
erate belongs.  On  the  Cromarty  Frith  side  the  sections  are 
mere  detached  patches,  obscured  at  every  point  by  diluvium 
and  soil ;  and,  in  conceiving  of  the  whole  as  a  continuous 
line,  with  the  Lias  a-top  and  the  granite  group  at  the  bottom, 
I  was  ever  reminded  of  those  coast-lines  of  the  ancient  geog- 
raphers, where  a  few  uncertain  dots,  a  few  deeper  markings, 
and  here  and  there  a  blank  space  or  two,  showed  the  blended 
results  of  conjecture  and  discovery  —  whether  they  give  a 
Terra  Incognita  Australia  to  the  one  hemisphere,  or  a 
North-Western  passage  to  the  other.  The  ichthyolites  in  a 
section  so  doubtful  might  be  regarded  as  belonging  to  either 
the  Old  or  the  New  Red  Sandstone  —  to  the  Coal  Measures, 
or  to  the  Mountain  Limestone.    All  was  uncertainty. 

One  remark  in  the  passing  :  it  may  teach  the  young  geolo- 
gist to  be  cautious  in  his  inferences,  and  illustrate,  besides, 
those  gaps  which  occur  in  the  geological  scale.  I  had  now 
discovered  the  ichthyolite  beds  in  five  different  localities  ;  in 
one  of  these  —  the  first  discovered  —  there  is  no  overlying 
stratum ;  it  seems  as  if  the  bed  formed  the  top  of  the  forma- 


H2 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


tion :  in  all  the  others  the  overlying  stratum  is  different,  and 
belongs  to  distant  and  widely  separated  ages.  We  cut  in  one 
locality  through  a  peat  moss  —  part  of  the  ruins,  perhaps,  of 
one  of  those  forests  which  covered,  about  the  commencement 
of  the  Christian  era,  well  nigh  the  entire  surface  of  the  island, 
and  sheltered  the  naked  inhabitants  from  the  legions  of  Agric- 
ola.  We  find,  as  we  dig,  huge  trunks  of  oak  and  elm,  cones 
of  the  Scotch  fir,  handfuls  of  hazel-nuts,  and  bones  and  horns 
of  the  roe  and  the  red  deer.  The  writer,  when  a  boy,  found 
among  the  peat  the  horn  of  a  gigantic  elk.  And,  forming 
the  bottom  of  this  recent  deposit,  and  lying  conformably  to  it, 
we  find  the  ichthyolite  beds,  with  their  antique  organisms. 
The  remains  of  oak  and  elrn  leaves,  and  of  the  spikes  and 
cones  of  the  pine,  lie  within  half  a  foot  of  the  remains  of 
the  Coccosteits  and  DiplojHerus.  We  dig  in  another  locality 
through  an  ancient  burying-ground  ;  we  pass  through  a  supe- 
rior stratum  of  skulls  and  coffins,  and  an  inferior  stratum, 
barren  in  organic  remains,  and  then  arrive  at  the  stratified 
clays,  with  their  ichthyolites.  In  a  third  locality  we  find 
these  in  junction  with  the  Lias,  and  underlying  its  lignites, 
ammonites,  and  belemnites,  just  as  we  see  them  underlying,  in 
the  other  two,  the  human  bones  and  the  peat  moss.  And  in 
yet  a  fourth  locality  we  see  them  overlaid  by  immense  arena- 
ceous beds,  that  belong  evidently,  as  their  mineralogical 
character  testifies,  to  either  the  Old  or  the  New  Red  Sand- 
stone. The  convulsions  and  revolutions  of  the  geological  world, 
like  those  of  the  political,  are  sad  confounders  of  place  and 
station,  and  bring  into  close  fellowship  the  high  and  the  low ; 
nor  is  it  safe  in  either  world,  —  such  have  been  the  effects  of 
the  disturbing  agencies, —  to  judge  of  ancient  relations  by 
existing  neighborhoods,  or  of  original  situations  by  present 
places  of  occupancy.    "  Misery,"  says  Shakspeare,  "  makes 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


113 


strange  bedfellows. "  The  changes  and  convulsions  of  the 
geological  world  have  made  strange  bedfellows  too.  I  have 
seen  fossils  of  the  Upper  Lias  and  of  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sand- 
stone washed  together  by  the  same  wave,  out  of  what  might 
be  taken,  on  a  cursory  survey,  for  the  same  bed,  and  then 
mingled. with  recent  shells,  alga),  branches  of  trees,  and  frag- 
ments of  wrecks  on  the  same  sea-beach. 

Years  passed,  and  in  1834  I  received  my  first  assistance 
from  without,  through  the  kindness  of  the  Messrs.  Anderson, 
of  Inverness,  who  this  year  published  their  Guide  to  the 
Highlands  and  Islands  of  Scotland  —  a  work  which  has 
never  received  half  its  due  measure  of  praise.  It  contains, 
in  a  condensed  and  very  pleasing  form,  the  accumulated 
gleanings,  for  half  a  lifetime,  of  two  very  superior  men, 
skilled  in  science,  and  of  highly  cultivated  taste  and  literary 
ability  ;  whose  remarks,  from  their  intimate  acquaintance 
with  every  foot-breadth  of  country  which  they  describe,  inva- 
riably exhibit  that  freshness  of  actual  observation,  recorded 
on  the  spot,  which  Gray  regarded  as  "  worth  whole  cart-loads 
of  recollection.' '  But  what  chiefly  interested  me  in  their 
work  was  its  dissertative  appendices  —  admirable  digests  of 
the  Natural  History,  Antiquities,  and  Geology  of  the  country. 
The  appendix  devoted  to  Geology,  consisting  of  fifty  closely 
printed  pages,  —  abridged  in  part  from  the  highest  geological 
authorities,  and  in  much  greater  part  the  result  of  original 
observation,  —  contains,  beyond  comparison,  the  completest 
description  of  the  rocks,  fossils,  and  formations  of  the  North- 
ern and  Western  Highlands,  which  has  yet  been  given  to  the 
public  in  a  popular  form.  I  perused  it  with  intense  interest, 
and  learned  from  it,  for  the  first  time,  of  the  fossil  fishes  of 
Caithness  and  Gamrie. 

There  was  almost  nothing  known,  at  the  period,  of  the 
10  * 


114 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


oryctology  of  the  older  rocks  —  little,  indeed,  of  that  of  the 
Old  Red  Sandstone,  in  its  proper  character  as  such  ;  and  with 
no  such  guiding  clew  as  has  since  been  furnished  by  Agassiz, 
and  the  later  researches  of  Mr.  Murchison,  the  writer  of  the 
appendix  had  recorded  as  his  ultimate  conclusion,  that  "  the 
middle  schistoze  system  of  Caithness,  containing  the  fossil 
fish,  was  intermediate  in  geological  character  and  position 
between  the  Old  and  New  Red  Sandstone  formations."  The 
ichthyolites  of  Gamrie  he  described  as  resembling  those  of 
Caithness  ;  and  I  at  once  recognized,  in  his  minute  descrip- 
tions of  both,  the  fossil  fish  of  Cromarty.  The  mineralogical 
accompaniments,  too,  seemed  nearly  the  same.  In  Caithness, 
the  animal  remains  are  mixed  up  in  some  places  with  a  black 
bituminous  matter  like  tar.  I  had  but  lately  found  among  the 
beds  of  the  little  bay  a  mass  of  soft  adhesive  bitumen,  her- 
metically sealed  up  in  the  limestone,  which,  when  broken 
open,  reminded  me,  from  the  powerful  odor  it  cast,  and  which 
filled  for  several  days  the  room  in  which  I  kept  it,  of  the  old 
Gaulish  mummy  of  which  we  find  so  minute  account  in  the 
Natural  History  of  Goldsmith.  The  nodules  which  enclosed 
the  organisms  at  Gamrie  were  described  as  of  a  sub-crystalline, 
radiating,  fibrous  structure.  So  much  was  this  the  case  with 
some  of  the  nodules  at  Cromarty,  that  they  had  often  reminded 
me,  when  freshly  broken,  though  composed  of  pure  carbonate 
of  lime,  of  masses  of  asbestos.  The  scales  and  bones  of 
the  Caithness  ichthyolites  were  blended,  it  was  stated,  with 
the  fragments  of  a  "  supposed  tortoise  nearly  allied  to  trionyx 
one  of  the  ichthyolites,  a  Biptcrus,  wTas  characterized  by  large 
scales,  a  double  dorsal,  and  a  one-sided  tail;  the  entire  lack 
of  shells  and  zoophytes  was  remarked,  and  the  abundance  of 
obscure  vegetable  impressions.  In  short,  had  the  accom- 
plished writer  of  the  appendix  been  briefly  describing  the  beds 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


115 


at  Cromarty,  instead  of  those  of  Caithness  and  Gamrie,  he 
might  have  employed  the  same  terms,  and  remarked  the  same 
circumstances  —  the  striated  nodules,  the  mineral  tar,  the 
vegetable  impressions,  the  absence  of  shells  and  zoophytes, 
the  large-scaled,  and  double-finned  ichthyolites  —  the  pecu- 
liarities of  which  applied  equally  to  the  Dipterus  and  Diplop- 
terus  —  and  the  supposed  tortoise,  in  which  I  once  recognized 
the  Coccosteus.  It  was  much  to  know,  that  this  doubtful 
formation — for  as  doubtful  I  still  regarded  it  —  was  of  such 
considerable  extent,  and  occurred  in  localities  so  widely  sepa- 
rated. I  corresponded  with  the  courteous  author  of  the 
appendix,  at  that  time  General  Secretary  to  the.  Northern  In- 
stitution for  the  Promotion  of  Science  and  Literature,  and 
Conservator  of  its  Museum  ;  and,  forwarding  to  him  dupli- 
cates of  some  of  my  better  specimens,  had,  as  I  had  antici- 
pated, the  generic  identity  of  the  Cromarty  ichthyolites  with 
those  of  Caithness  and  Gamrie  fully  confirmed. 

My  narrative  is,  I  am  afraid,  becoming  tedious ;  but  it  em- 
bodies somewhat  more  than  the  mere  history  of  a  sort  of 
Robinson  Crusoe  in  Geology,  cut  off  for  years  from  all  inter- 
course with  his  kind.  It  contains,  also,  the  history  of  a  forma- 
tion in  its  connection  with  science  ;  and  the  reader  will,  I 
trust,  bear  with  me  for  a  few  pages  more.  Seasons  passed  ; 
and  I  received  new  light  from  the  researches  of  Agassiz, 
which,  if  it  did  not  show  me  my  way  more  clearly,  ren- 
dered it  at  least  more  interesting,  by  associating  with  it 
one  of  those  wonderful  truths,  stranger  that  fictions,  which 
rise  ever  and  anon  from  the  profounder  depths  of  science, 
and  whose  use,  in  their  connection  with  the  human  intel- 
lect, seems  to  be  to  stimulate  the  faculties.  I  have  often  had 
occasion  to  refer  to  the  one-sided  condition  of  tail  charac- 
teristic of  the  ichthyolites  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone.  It 


116 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


characterizes,  says  Agassiz,  the  fish  of  all  the  more  ancient 
formations.  At  one  certain  point  in  the  descending  scale 
Nature  entirely  alters  her  plan  in  the  formation  of  the  tail. 
All  the  ichthyolites  above  are  fashioned  after  one  particular 
type  —  all  below  after  another  and  different  type.  The  bibli- 
ographer can  tell  at  what  periods  in  the  history  of  letters  one 
character  ceased  to  be  employed  and  another  came  into  use. 
Black  letter,  for  instance,  in  our  own  country,  was  scarce 
ever  resorted  to  for  purposes  of  general  literature  after  the 
reign  of  James  VI.  ;  and  in  manuscript  writing  the  Italian 
hand  superseded  the  Saxon  about  the  close  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  Now,  is  it  not  truly  wonderful  to  find  an  analogous 
change  of  character  in  that  pictorial  history  of  the  past 
which  Geology  furnishes  ?  From  the  first  appearance  of  ver- 
tebrated  existences  to  the  middle  beds  of  the  New  Red  Sand- 
stone,—  a  space  including  the  Upper  Ludlow  rocks,  the 
Old  Red  Sandstone  in  all  its  members,  the  Mountain  Lime- 
stone, with  the  Limestone  of  Burdie  House,  the  Coal  Meas- 
ures, the  Lower  New  Red,  and  the  Magnesian  Limestone,  — 
we  find  only  the  ancient  or  unequally  lobed  type  of  tail.  In 
all  the  formations  above,  including  the  Lias,  the  Oolite,  Mid- 
dle, Upper,  and  Lower,  the  Wealden,  the  Green-Sand,  the 
Chalk,  and  the  Tertiary,  we  find  only  the  equally-lobed  con- 
dition of  tail.  And  it  is  more  than  probable,  that,  with  the 
tail,  the  character  of  the  skeleton  also  changed  ;  that  the  more 
ancient  type  characterized,  throughout,  the  semi-cartilaginous 
order  of  fishes,  just  as  the  more  modern  type  characterizes 
the  osseous  fishes  ;  and  that  the  upper  line  of  the  Magnesian 
Limestone  marks  the  period  at  which  the  order  became  ex- 
tinct. Conjecture  lacks  footing  in  grappling  with  a  revolution 
so  extensive  and  so  wonderful.  Shall  I  venture  to  throw  out 
a  suggestion  on  the  subject,  in  connection  with  another 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


117  . 


suggestion  which  has  emanated  from  one  of  the  first  of  living 
geologists  ?  Fish,  of  all  existing  creatures,  seem  the  most 
capable  of  sustaining  high  degrees  of  heat,  and  are  to  be 
found  in  some  of  the  hot  springs  of  Continental  Europe, 
where  it  is  supposed  scarce  any  other  animal  could  live. 
Now,  all  the  fish  of  the  ancient  type  are  thickly  covered  by 
a  defensive  armor  of  bone,  arranged  in  plates,  bars,  or  scales, 
or  all  the  three  modes  together,  as  in  the  Osteolepis  and  one 
half  its  contemporaries.  The  one-sided  tail  is  united  invari- 
ably to  a  strong  cuirass.  And  it  has  been  suggested  by  Dr. 
Buckland,  that  this  strong  cuirass  may  have  formed  a  sort  of 
defence  against  the  injurious  effects  of  a  highly  heated  sur- 
rounding medium.  The  suggestion  is,  of  course,  based 
purely  on  hypothesis.  It  may  be  stated,  in  direct  connection 
with  it,  however,  that  in  the  Lias  —  the  first  richly  fossilifer- 
ous  formation  overlying  that  in  which  the  change  occurred  — 
we  find,  for  the  first  time  in  the  geological  system,  decided 
indications  of  a  change  of  seasons.  The  foot-prints  of  winter 
are  left  impressed  amid  the  lignites  of  the  Cromarty  Lias. 
In  a  specimen  now  before  me,  the  alternations  of  summer 
heat  and  winter  cold  are  as  distinctly  marked  in  the  annual 
rings  as  in  the  pines  or  larches  of  our  present  forests  ;  where- 
as in  the  earlier  lignites,  contemporary  with  ichthyolites  of 
the  ancient  type,  either  no  annual  rings  appear,  or  the  mark- 
ings, if  present,  are  both  faint  and  unfrequent.  Just  ere 
winter  began  to  take  its  place  among  the  seasons,  the  jish  fit- 
ted for  living  in  a  highly  heated  medium  disappeared  :  they 
were  created  to  inhabit  a  thermal  ocean,  and  died  away  as  it 
cooled  down.  Fish  of  a  similar  type  may  now  inhabit  the 
seas  of  Venus,  or  even  of  Jupiter,  which,  from  its  enormous 
bulk,  though  greatly  more  distant  from  the  sun  than  our 
earth,  may  still  powerfully  retain  the  internal  heat. 


,118 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


I  still  pursued  my  inquiries,  and  received  a  valuable  aux- 
iliary in  a  gentleman  from  India,  Dr.  John  Malcolmson,  of 
Madras  —  a  member  of  the  London  Geological  Society,  and 
a  man  of  high  scientific  attainments  and  great  general  knowl- 
edge. Above  all,  I  found  him  to  possess,  in  a  remarkable 
degree,  that  spirit  of  research,  almost  amounting  to  a  pas- 
sion, which  invariably  marks  the  superior  man.  He  had 
spent  month  after  month  under  the  burning  sun  of  India, 
amid  fever  marshes  and  tiger  jungles,  acquainting  himself 
with  the  unexplored  geological  field  which,  only  a  few  years 
ago,  that  vast  continent  presented,  and  in  collecting  fossils 
hitherto  unnamed  and  undescribed.  He  had  pursued  his  in- 
quiries, too,  along  the  coasts  of  the  Red  Sea,  and  far  upwards 
on  the  banks  of  .the  Nile  ;  and  now,  in  returning  for  a  time 
to  his  own  country,  he  had  brought  with  him  the  determina- 
tion of  knowing  it  thoroughly  as  a  man  of  science  and  a  geol- 
ogist. I  had  the  pleasure  of  first  introducing  him  to  the  ich- 
thyolites  of  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone,  by  bringing  him 
to  my  first-discovered  bed,  and  laying  open,  by  a  blow  of  the 
hammer,  a  beautiful  Osteolepis.  He  was  much  interested  in 
the  fossils  of  my  little  collection,  and  at  once  decided  that 
the  formation  which  contained  them  could  be  no  representa- 
tive of  the  Coal  Measures.  After  ranging  over  the  various 
beds  on  both  sides  the  rectilinear  ridge,  and  acquainting  him- 
self thoroughly  with  their  organisms,  he  set  out  to  explore 
the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstones  of  Moray  and  Banff,  hitherto 
deemed  peculiarly  barren,  but  whose  character  too  much  re- 
sembled that  of  the  rocks  which  he  had  now  ascertained  to 
be  so  abundant  in  fossils,  not  to  be  held  worthy  of  further 
examination.  He  explored  the  banks  of  the  Spey,  and  found 
the  ichthyolite  beds  extensively  developed  at  Dipple,  in  the 
middle  of  an  Old  Red  Sandstone  district.    He  pursued  his 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


119 


researches,  and  traced  the  formation  in  ravines  and  the  beds 
of  rivers,  from  the  village  of  Buckie  to  near  the  field  of  Cul- 
loden ;  he  found  it  exposed  in  the  banks  of  the  Nairn,  in  the 
ravines  above  Cawdor  Castle,  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  hill 
of  Rait,  at  Clune,  Lethenbar,  and  in  the  vale  of  Rothes  — 
and  in  every  instance  low  in  the  Old  Reel  Sandstone.  The 
formation  hitherto  deemed  so  barren  in  remains  proved  one 
of  the  richest  of  them  all,  if  not  in  tribes  and  families,  at 
least  in  individual  fossils ;  and  the  reader  may  form  some 
idea  of  the  extent  in  which  it  has  already  been  proved  fossil- 
iferous,  when  he  remembers  that  the  tract  includes  as  its  ex- 
tremes Orkney,  Gamrie,  and  the  north-eastern  gorge  of  the 
great  Caledonian  Valley.  The  ichthyolites  were  discovered 
in  the  latter  locality  in  the  quarry  of  Inches,  three  miles  be- 
yond Inverness,  by  Mr.  George  Anderson,  the  gentleman  to 
whose  geological  attainments,  as  one  of  the  authors  of  the 
Guide  Book,  I  have  lately  had  occasion  to  refer. 

I  had  now  corresponded  for  several  years  with  a  little  circle 
of  geological  friends,  and  had  described  in  my  letters,  and  in 
some  instances  had  attempted  to  figure  in  them,  my  newly- 
found  fossils.  A  letter  which  I  wrote  early  in  1838  to  Dr. 
Malcolmson,  then  at  Paris,  and  which  contained  a  rude  draw- 
ing of  the  Pterichthys,  was  submitted  to  Agassiz,  and  the 
curiosity  of  the  naturalist  was  excited.  He  examined  the 
figure,  rather,  however,  with  interest  than  surprise,  and  read 
the  accompanying  description,  not  in  the  least  inclined  to 
scepticism  by  the  singularity  of  its  details.  He  had  looked 
on  too  many  wonders  of  a  similar  cast  to  believe  that  he  had 
exhausted  them,  or  to  evince  any  astonishment  that  Geology 
should  be  found  to  contain  one  wonder  more.  Some  months 
after,  I  sent  a  restored  drawing  of  the  same  fossil  to  the  Elgin 
Scientific  Society.    I  must  state,  however,  that  the  restora- 


120 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


tion  was  by  no  means  complete.  The  paddle-like  arms  were 
placed  further  below  the  shoulders  than  in  any  actual  spe- 
cies;  and  I  had  transferred,  by  mistake,  to  the  creature's 
upper  side,  some  of  the  plates  of  the  Coccostens.  Still  the 
type  was  unequivocally  that  of  the  Pterichthys.  The  secre- 
tary of  the  Society,  Mr.  Patrick  Duff,  an  excellent  geologist, 
to  whose  labors,  in  an  upper  formation  of  the  Old  Red  Sand- 
stone, I  shall  have  afterwards  occasion  to  refer,  questioned, 
as  he  well  might,  some  of  the  details  of  the  figure,  and  we 
corresponded  for  several  weeks  regarding  it,  somewhat  in  the 
style  of  Jonathan  Oldbuck  and  his  antiquarian  friend,  who 
succeeded  in  settling  the  meaning  of  two  whole  words,  in  an 
antique  inscription,  in  little  more  than  two  years.  Most  of 
the  other  members  looked  upon  the  entire  drawing,  so  strange 
did  the  appearance  seem,  as  embodying  a  fiction  of  the  same 
class  with  those  embodied  in  the  pictured  griffins  and  uni- 
corns of  mythologic  Zoology  ;  and,  in  amusing  themselves 
with  it,  they  bestowed  on  its  betailed  and  bepaddled  figure,  as 
if  in  anticipation  of  Agassiz,  the  name  of  the  draughtsman. 
Not  many  months  after,  however,  a  hona  fide  Pterichthys 
turned  up  in  one  of  the  newly  discovered  beds  of  Nairnshire, 
and  the  Association  ceased  to  joke,  and  began  to  wonder.  T 
merely  mention  the  circumstance  in  connection  with  a  right 
challenged,  at  the  late  meeting  of  the  British  Association  at 
Glasgow,  by  a  gentleman  of  Elgin,  to  be  regarded  as  the 
original  discoverer  of  the  Pterichthys.  I  am,  of  course,  far 
from  supposing  that  the  discovery  was  not  actually  made,  but 
regret  that  it  should  have  been  kept  so  close  a  secret  at  a 
time  when  it  might  have  stood  the  other  discoverer  of  the 
creature  in  such  stead. 

1?he  exact  .place  of  the  ichthyolites  in  the  system  was  still 
to  fix.    I  was  spending  a  day,  early  in  the  winter  of  1839, 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


121 


among  the  nearly  vertical  strata  that  lean  against  the  North- 
ern Sutor.  The  section  there  presented  is  washed  by  the 
tide  for  nearly  three  hundred  yards  from  where  it  rests  on 
the  granitic  gneiss ;  and  each  succeeding  stratum  in  the 
ascending  order  may  be  as  clearly  traced  as  the  alternate 
white  and  black  squares  in  a  marble  pavement.  First  there 
is  a  bed  of  conglomerate  two  hundred  and  fifteen  feet  in 
thickness,  "  identical  in  structure,"  say  Professor  Sedgwick 
and  Mr.  Murchison,  u  with  the  older  red  conglomerates  of 
Cumberland  and  the  Island  of  Arran,*  and  which  cannot  be 
distinguished  from  those  conglomerates  which  lean  against 
the  southern  flank  of  the  Grampians,  and  on  which  Dunnot- 
tar  Castle  is  built.  Immediately  above  the  conglomerate 
there  is  a  hundred  and  fourteen  feet  more  of  coarse  sand- 
stone strata,  of  a  reddish  yellow  hue,  with  occasionally  a  few 
pebbles  enclosed,  and  then  twenty-seven  feet  additional  of 
limestone  and  stratified  clay.  There  are  no  breaks,  no 
faults,  no  thinning  out  of  strata  —  all  the  beds  lie  parallel, 
showing  regular  deposition.  I  had  passed  over  the  section 
twenty  times  before,  and  had  carefully  examined  the  lime- 
stone and  the  clay,  but  in  vain.  On  this  occasion,  however, 
I  was  more  fortunate.  I  struck  off  a  fragment.  It  contained 
a  vegetable  impression  of  the  same  character  with  those  of 
the  ichthyolite  beds ;  and  after  an  hour's  diligent  search,  I 
had  turned  out  from  the  heart  of  the  stratum  plates  and  scales 
enough  to  fill  a  shelf  in  a  museum  —  the  helmet-like  snout 

*  Different  in  one  respect  from  the  conglomerates  of  Arran.  It 
abounds  in  rolled  fragments  of  granite,  whereas  in  those  of  Arran 
there  occur  no  pebbles  of  this  rock.  Arran  has  now  its  granite  in 
abundance ;  the  northern  locality  has  none ;  though,  when  the  con- 
glomerates of  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone  were  in  the  course  of 
forming,  the  case  was  exactly  the  reverse. 
II 


122 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


of  an  Osteolepis,  the  thorn-like  spine  of  a  Cheir acanthus,  and 
a  Coccosteus  well  nigh  entire.  I  had  at  length,  after  a  search 
of  nearly  ten  years,  found  the  true  place  of  the  ichthyolite 
bed.  The  reader  may  smile,  but  I  hope  the  smile  will  be  a 
good-natured  one  ;  a  simple  pleasure  may  be  not  the  less  sin- 
cere on  account  of  its  simplicity  ;  and  u  little  things  are  great 
to  little  men.'"  I  passed  over  and  over  the  strata,  and  found 
there  could  be  no  mistake.  The  place  of  the  fossil  fish  in 
the  scale  is  little  more  than  a  hundred  feet  above  the  top,  and 
not  much  more  than  a  hundred  yards  above  the  base  of  the 
great  conglomerate  ;  and  there  lie  over  it  in  this  section  about 
five  hundred  feet  of  soft,  arenaceous  stone,  with  here  and 
there  alternating  bands  of  limestone  and  beds  of  clay  studded 
with  nodules  —  all  belonging  to  the  inferior  Old  Red  Sand- 
stone. 

The  enormous  depth  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  of  Eng- 
land has  been  divided  by  Mr.  Murchison  into  three  members, 
or  formations  —  the  division  adopted  in  his  Elements  by  Mr. 
Lyell,  as  quoted  in  an  early  chapter.  These  are,  the  lowest, 
or  Tilestone  formation,  the  middle,  or  Cornstone  formation, 
and  the  uppermost,  or  Quartzose  conglomerate  formation. 
The  terms  are  derived  from  mineralogical  characters,  and  in- 
adequate as  designations,  therefore,  like  that  of  the  Old  Red 
Sandstone  itself,  which,  in  many  of  its  deposits,  is  not  sand- 
stone, and  is  not  red.  But  they  serve  to  express  great  natural 
divisions.  Now  the  Tilestone  member  of  England  repre- 
sents, as  I  have  already  stated,  this  Lower  Old  Red  Sand- 
stone formation  of  Scotland ;  but  its  extent  of  vertical  de- 
velopment, compared  with  that  of  the  other  two  members  of 
the  system,  is  strikingly  different  in  the  two  countries.  The 
Tilestones  compose  the  least  of  the  three  divisions  in  Eng- 
land ;  their  representative  in  Scotland  forms  by  much  the 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


123 


greatest  of  the  three  ;  and  there  seems  to  be  zoological  as 
well  as  lithological  evidence  that  its  formation  must  have 
occupied  no  brief  period.  The  same  genera  occur  in  its  upper 
as  in  its  lower  beds,  but  the  species  appear  to  be  different. 
I  shall  briefly  state  the  evidence  of  this  very  curious  fact. 

The  seat  of  Sir  William  Gordon  Camming,  of  Altyre,  is  in 
the  neighborhood  of  one  of  the  Morayshire  deposits  discov- 
ered by  Mr.  Malcolmson ;  and  for  the  greater  part  of  the  last 
two  years  Lady  Gordon  Gumming  has  been  engaged  in  mak- 
ing a  collection  of  its  peculiar  fossils,  which  already  fills  an 
entire  apartment.  The  object  of  her  Ladyship  was  the  illus- 
tration of  the  Geology  of  the  district,  and  all  she  sought  in  it 
on  her  own  behalf  was  congenial  employment  for  a  singularly 
elegant  and  comprehensive  mind.  But  her  labors  have  ren- 
dered her  a  benefactor  to  science.  Her  collection  was  visited, 
shortly  after  the  late  meeting  of  the  British  Association  in 
Glasgow,  by  Agassiz  and  Dr.  Buckland  ;  and  great  was  the 
surprise  and  delight  of  the  philosophers  to  find  that  the  whole 
was  new  to  Geology.  All  the  species,  amounting  to  eleven, 
and  at  least  one  of  the  genera,  that  of  the  Glyptolepis,  were 
different  from  any  Agassiz  had  ever  seen  or  described  before. 
The  deposit  so  successfully  explored  by  her  Ladyship  occurs 
high  in  the  lower  formation.  Agassiz,  shortly  after,  in  com- 
paring the  collection  of  Dr.  Traill  (a  collection  formed  at 
Orkney)  with  that  of  the  writer,  (a  collection  made  at  Crom- 
arty,) was  struck  by  the  specific  identity  of  the  specimens. 
In  the  instances  in  which  the  genera  agreed,  he  found  that  the 
species  agreed  also,  though  the  ichthyolites  of  both  differed 
specifically  from  the  ichthyolites  of  Caithness,  which  occur 
chiefly  in  the  upper  beds  of  the  formation,  and  from  those 
also  of  Lady  Cumming  of  Altyre,  which  occur,  as  I  have 
said,  at  the  top.    And  in  examining  into  the  cause,  it  was 


124 


THE   OLD   RED  SANDSTONE. 


found  that  the  two  collections,  though  furnished  by  localities 
more  than  a  hundred  miles  apart,  were  yet  derived,  if  I  may 
so  express  myself,  from  the  same  low  platform,  both  alike 
representing  the>  fossiliferous  base  of  the  system,  and  both 
removed  but  by  a  single  stage  from  the  great  unfossiliferous 
conglomerate  below.  Thus  there  seem  to  be  what  may  be 
termed  two  stories  of  being  in  this  lower  formation  —  stories 
in  which  the  groups,  though  generically  identical,  are  specifi- 
cally dissimilar.* 


*  Since  this  period,  however,  several  species  identical  with  those 
of  Cromarty  have  been  found  in  the  Morayshire  deposits. 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


125 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Upper  Formations  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone.  —  Room,  enough  for  each 
and  to  spare.  —  Middle ,  or  Cornstone  Formation.  —  The  Cepha- 
laspis  its  most  characteristic  Organism.  —  Description.  —  The  Den 
of  Balruddery  richer  in  the  Fossils  of  this  middle  Formation  than 
any  other  Locality  yet  discovered. — Various  Contemporaries  of 
the  Cephalaspis.  —  Vegetable  Impressions.  —  Gigantic  Crustacean. 
—  Seraphim.  —  Ichthyodorulites.  —  Sketch  of  the  Geology  of  For- 
farshire. —  Its  older  Deposits  of  the  Cornstone  Formation.  —  The 
Quarries  of  Carmylie.  —  Their  Vegetable  and  Animal  Remains.  — 
The  Upper  Formation.  —  Wide  Extent  of  the  Fauna  and  Flora  of 
the  earlier  Formations.  —  Probable  Cause. 

Hitherto  I  have  dwelt  almost  exclusively  on  the  fossils  of 
the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone,  and  the  history  of  their  dis- 
covery :  I  shall  now  ascend  to  the  organisms  of  its  higher 
platforms.  The  system  in  Scotland,  as  in  the  sister  kingdom, 
has  its  middle  and  upper  groups,  and  these  are  in  no  degree 
less  curious  than  the  inferior  group  already  described,  nor  do 
they  more  resemble  the  existences  of  the  present  time. 
Does  the  reader  remember  the  illustration  of  the  pyramid 
employed  in  an  early  chapter  —  its  three  parallel  bars,  and 
the  strange  hieroglyphics  of  the  middle  bar  ?  Let  him  now 
imagine  another  pyramid,  inscribed  with  the  remaining  and 
later  history  of  the  system.  We  read,  as  before,  from  the 
base  upwards,  but  find  the  broken  and  half-defaced  characters 
of  the  second  erection  descending  into  the  very  soil,  as  in 
those  obelisks  of  Egypt  round  which  the  sands  of  the  desert 
have  been  accumulating  for  ages.  Hence  a  hiatus  in  our  his- 
tory for  future  excavators  to  fill ;  and  it  contains  many  such 
blanks,  every  unfossiliferous  bar  in  either  pyramid  represent- 
11  * 


126 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


ing  a  gap  in  the  record.  Three  distinct  formations  the  group 
undoubtedly  contains  —  perhaps  more ;  nor  will  the  fact 
appear  strange  to  the  reader  who  remembers  how  numerous 
the  formations  are  that  lie  over  and  under  it,  and  that  its  vast 
depth  of  ten  thousand  feet  equals  that  of  the  whole  secondary 
system  from  top  to  bottom.  Eight  such  formations  as  the 
Oolite,  or  ten  such  formations  as  the  Chalk,  could  rest,  the 
one  over  the  other,  in  the  space  occupied  by  a  group  so 
enormous.  To  the  evidence  of  its  three  distant  formations, 
which  is  of  a  very  simple  character,  I  shall  advert  as  I  go 
along. 

The  central  or  Cornstone  division  of  the  system  in  Eng- 
land is  characterized  throughout  its  vast  depth  by  a  peculiar 
family  of  ichthyolites,  which  occur  in  none  of  the  other 
divisions.  I  have  already  had  occasion  to  refer  to  the  Cepha- 
laspis. Four  species  of  this  fish  have  been  discovered  in 
the  Cornstones  of  Hereford,  Salop,  Worcester,  Monmouth,  and 
Brecon  ;*  u  and  as  they  are  always  found,"  says  Mr.  Murch- 
ison,  "  in  the  same  division  of  the  Old  Hed  System,  they 
have  become  valuable  auxiliaries  in  enabling  the  geologist  to 
identify  its  subdivisions  through  England  and  Wales,  and  also 
to  institute  direct  comparisons  between  the  different  strata  of 
the  Old  Red  Sandstone  of  England  and  Scotland."  The 
Cephalaspis  is  one  of  the  most  curious  ichthyolites  of  the  sys- 
tem. (See  Plate  X.,  fig.  1.)  Has  the  reader  ever  seen  a 
saddler's  cutting  knife  ?  —  a  tool  with  a  crescent-shaped 
blade,  and  the  handle  fixed  transversely  in  the  centre  of  its 
concave  side.  In  general  outline  the  Cephalaspis  resembled 
this  tool  —  the  crescent-shaped  blade  representing  the  head, 
the  transverse  handle  the  body.    We  have  but  to  give  the 


*  Cephalaspis  Letvisii,  C.  Lloydii,  C.  Lyettii,  and  C.  rostratus. 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


127 


handle  an  angular,  instead  of  a  rounded  shape,  and  to  press 
together  the  pointed  horns  of  the  crescent,  till  they  incline 
towards  each  other,  and  the  convex,  or  sharpened  edge,  is 
elongated  into  a  semi-ellipse,  cut  in  the  line  of  its  shortest 
diameter,  in  order  to  produce  the  complete  form  of  the  Ceph- 
alaspis.  The  head,  compared  with  the  body,  was  of  great 
size  —  comprising  fully  one  third  the  creature's  entire  length. 
In  the  centre,  and  placed  closely  together,  as  in  many  of  the 
flat  fish,  were  the  eyes.  Some  of  the  specimens  show  two 
dorsals,  and  an  anal  and  caudal  fin.  The  thin  and  angular 
body  presents  a  jointed  appearance,  somewhat  like  that  of  a 
lobster  or  trilobite.  Like  the  bodies  of  most  of  the  ichthyolites 
of  the  system,  it  was  covered  with  variously  formed  scales  of 
bone  ;  the  creature's  head  was  cased  in  strong  plates  of  the 
same  material,  the  whole  upper  side  lying  under  one  huge 
buckler — and  hence  the  name  Cephalaspis,  or  buckler-head. 
In  proportion  to  its  strength  and  size,  it  seems  to  have  been 
amply  furnished  with  weapons  of  defence.  Such  was  the 
strength  and  massiveness  of  its  covering,  that  its  remains  are 
found  comparatively  entire  in  arenaceous  rocks  impregnated 
with  iron,  in  which  few  other  fossils  could  have  survived. 
Its  various  species,  as  they  occur  in  the  Welsh  and  English 
Cornstones,  says  Mr.  Murchison,  seem  "  not  to  have  been 
suddenly  killed  and  entombed,  but  to  have  been  long  exposed 
to  submarine  agencies,  such  as  the  attacks  of  animals,  cur- 
rents, concretionary  action,"  &c. ;  and  yet,  "  though  much 
dismembered,  the  geologist  has  little  difficulty  in  recognizing 
even  the  smallest  portions  of  them."  Nor  does  it  seem  to 
have  been  quite  unfurnished  with  offensive  weapons.  The 
sword-fish,  with  its  strong  and  pointed  spear,  has  been  known 
to  perforate  the  oaken  ribs  of  the  firmest  built  vessels  ;  and, 
poised  and  directed  by  its  lesser  fins,  and  impelled  by  its 


128 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


powerful  tail,  it  may  be  regarded  either  as  an  arrow  or  javelin 
flung  with  tremendous  force,  or  as  a  knight  speeding  to  the 
encounter  with  his  lance  in  rest.  Now  there  are  missiles 
employed  in  Eastern  warfare,  which,  instead  of  being  pointed 
like  the  arrow  or  javelin,  are  edged  somewhat  like  the 
crooked  falchion  or  saddler's  cutting-knife,  and  which  are 
capable  of  being  cast  with  such  force,  that  they  have  been 
known  to  sever  a  horse's  leg  through  the  bone  ;  and  if  the 
sword-fish  may  be  properly  compared  to  an  arrow  or  javelin, 
the  combative  powers  of  the  Cephalaspis  may  be  illustrated, 
it  is  probable,  by  a  weapon  of  this  kind  —  the  head  all  around 
its  elliptical  margin  presenting  a  sharp  edge,  like  that  of  a 
cutting-knife,  or  falchion.  Its  impetus,  however,  must  have 
been  comparatively  small,  for  its  organs  of  motion  were  so  : 
it  was  a  bolt  carefully  fashioned,  but  a  bolt  cast  from  a  feeble 
bow.  But  if  weak  in  the  assault,  it  must  have  been  formida- 
ble when  assailed.  "  The  pointed  horns  of  the  crescent," 
said  Agassiz  to  the  writer,  16  seem  to  have  served  a  similar 
purpose  with  the  spear-like  wings  of  the  Ptericlithys^  —  the 
sole  difference  consisting  in  the  circumstance,  that  the  spears 
of  the  one  could  be  elevated  or  depressed  at  pleasure,  where- 
as those  of  the  other  were  ever  fixed  in  the  warlike  attitude. 
And  such  was  the  Ccphalaspis  of  the  Cornstones  —  not  only 
the  most  characteristic,  but  in  England  and  Wales  almost 
the  sole  organism  of  the  formation. 

Now  of  this  curious  ichthyolite  we  find  no  trace  among 
the  fossils  of  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone.  It  occurs  neither 
in  Orkney  nor  Cromarty,  Caithness  nor  Gamrie,  Nairnshire 
nor  the  inferior  ichthyolite  beds  of  Moray.  Neither  in  Eng- 
land nor  in  Scotland  is  it  to  be  found  in  the  Tilestone  forma- 
tion, or  its  equivalent.  It  is  common,  however,  in  the  Old 
Red  Sandstone  of  Forfarshire  ;  and  it  occurs  at  Balruddery, 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


129 


in  the  Gray  Sandstones  which  form  on  both  sides  the  Tay, 
where  the  Tilestone  formation  seems  wanting,  the  apparent 
base  of  the  system.  It  is  exclusively  a  medal  of  the  middle 
empire. 

In  the  last-mentioned  locality,  in  a  beautifully  wooded  dell, 
known  as  the  Den  of  Balruddery,  the  Cephalasjns  is  found 
associated  with  an  entire  group  of  other  fossils,  the  recent 
discovery  of  Mr.  Webster,  the  proprietor,  who,  with  a  zeal 
through  which  geological  knowledge  promises  to  be  materially 
extended,  and  at  an  expense  of  much  labor,  has  made  a  col- 
lection of  all  the  organisms  of  the  Den  yet  discovered. 
These  the  writer  had  the  pleasure  of  examining  in  the  com- 
pany of  Mr.  Murchison  and  Dr.  Buckland  :  he  was  afterwards 
present  when  they  were  examined  by  Agassiz  ;  and  not  a 
single  organism  of  the  group  could  be  identified  on  either 
occasion,  by  any  member  of  the  party,  with  those  of  the 
lower  or  upper  formations.  Even  the  genera  are  dissimilar. 
The  fossils  of  the  Lias  scarce  differ  more  from  those  of  the 
Coal  Measures,  than  the  fossils  of  the  Middle  Old  Red  Sand- 
stone from  the  fossils  of  the  formations  that  rest  over  and 
under  them.  Each  formation  has  its  distinct  group  —  a  fact 
so  important  to  the  geologist,  that  he  may  feel  an  interest  in 
its  further  verification  through  the  decision  of  yet  another  high 
authority.  The  superior  Old  Red  Sandstones  of  Scotland 
were  first  ascertained  to  be  fossiliferous  by  Professor  Fleming, 
of  King's  College,  Aberdeen,*  confessedly  one  of  the  first 


*  The  Upper  Old  Red  Sandstones  of  Moray  were  ascertained  to 
be  fossiliferous  at  nearly  the  same  time  by  Mr.  Martin,  of  the  Ander- 
son Institution,  Elgin.  There  is  a  mouldering  conglomerate  precipice 
termed  the  Scat- Craig,  about  four  miles  to  the  south  of  the  town, 
more  abundant  in  remains  than  perhaps  any  of  the  other  deposits  of 


130 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


naturalists  of  the  age,  and  who,  to  his  minute  acquaintance 
with  existing  forms  of  being,  adds  an  acquaintance  scarcely 
less  minute  with  those  forms  of  primeval  life  that  no  longer 
exist.  He  it  was  who  first  discovered,  in  the  Upper  Old  Red 
Sandstones  of  Fifershire,  the  large  scales  and  plates  of  that 
strikingly  characteristic  ichthyolite  of  the  higher  formation, 
now  known  as  the  Holoplychius —  of  which  more  anon  ;  and, 
unquestionably,  no  one  acquainted  with  his  writings,  or  the 
character  of  his  mind,  can  doubt  that  he  examined  carefully. 


the  formation  yet  discovered  ;  and  in  this  precipice  Mr.  Martin  first 
commenced  his  labors  in  the  lied  Sandstone  of  the  district,  and  found 
it  a  mine  of  wonders.  It  is  a  place  of  singular  interest  —  a  rock  of 
sepulchres  ;  and  its  teeth,  scales,  and  single  bones  occur  in  a  state  of 
great  entireness  ;  though,  ere  the  deposit  was  formed,  the  various  ich- 
thyolites  whose  remains  it  contains  seem  to  have  been  broken  up,  and 
their  fragments  scattered.  Accumulations  of  larger  and  smaller  peb- 
bles alternate  in  the  strata  ;  and  the  bulkier  bones  and  teeth  are 
found  invariably  among  the  bulkier  pebbles,  thus  showing  that  they 
were  operated  upon  by  the  same  laws  of  motion  which  operated  on 
the  inorganic  contents  of  the  deposit.  At  a  considerably  later  period 
the  fossils  of  the  upper  group  were  detected  in  the  precipitous  and 
romantic  banks  of  the  Findhorn,  by  Dr.  Malcolmson,  of  Madras,  when 
prosecuting  his  discoveries  of  the  organisms  of  the  lower  formation. 
He  found  them,  also,  though  in  less  abundance,  in  a  splendid  section 
exhibited  in  the  Burn  of  Lethen,  a  rivulet  of  Moray,  and  yet  again  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Altyre.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Gordon,  of  Birnie,  and 
Mr.  Robertson,  of  Inverugie,  have  been  also  discoverers  in  the  dis- 
trict. To  the  geological  labors  of  Mr.  Patrick  Duff,  of  Elgin,  in  the 
same  field,  I  have  already  had  occasion  incidentally  to  refer.  The  pa- 
tient inquiries  of  this  gentleman  have  been  prosecuted  for  years  in  all 
the  formations  of  the  province,  from  the  Weald  of  Linksfield,  with  its 
peculiar  lacustrine  remains  —  lignites,  minute  fresh-water  shells,  and 
the  teeth,  spines,  and  vertebra)  of  fish  and  saurians  —  down  to  the  base 
of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone,  with  its  Coccostei,  Dipteri>  and  Pterichthyes. 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


131 


Now,  a  few  years  since,  I  had  the  pleasure  of  introducing 
Professor  Fleming  to  the  Organisms  of  the  Lower  Old  Red 
Sandstone,  as  they  occur  in  the  neighborhood  of  Cromarty  ; 
and,  notwithstanding  his  extensive  acquaintance  with  the 
upper  fossils  of  the  system,  he  found  himself,  among  the 
lower,  in  an  entirely  new  field.  His  knowledge  of  the  one 
group  served  but  to  show  him  how  very  different  it  was  from 
the  other.  With  the  organisms  of  the  lower  he  minutely 
acquainted  himself ;  he  collected  specimens  from  Gamrie, 


His  acquaintance  with  the  organisms  of  the  Scat-Craig  is  at  once  more 
extensive  and  minute  than  that  of,  perhaps,  any  other  geologist ;  and 
his  collection  of  them  very  valuable,  representing,  as  it  does,  a  forma- 
tion of  much  interest,  still  little  known.  Mr.  Dufi  is  at  present  en- 
gaged on  a  volume  descriptive  of  the  Geology  of  the  province  of 
Moray,  a  district  extensively  explored  of  late  years,  and  abundant  in 
its  distinct  groups  of  organisms,  but  of  which  general  readers  have 
still  much  to  learn  ;  and  from  no  one  could  they  learn  more  regarding 
it  than  from  Mr.  DufF.  It  is  still  only  a  few  months  since  the  Upper 
Old  Red  Sandstones  of  the  southern  districts  of  Scotland  were  found 
to  be  fossiliferous  ;  and  the  writer  is  chiefly  indebted  for  his  acquaint- 
ance with  their  organisms  to  a  tradesman  of  Berwickshire,  Mr.  Wil- 
liam Stevenson,  of  Dunse,  who,  on  perusing  some  of  the  geological 
articles  which  appeared  in  the  Witness  newspaper  during  the  course 
of  the  last  autumn,  sent  him  a  parcel  of  fossils  disinterred  from  out  the 
deep  belt  of  Red  Sandstone  which  leans  to  the  south  in  that  locality, 
against  the  grauwacke  of  the  Lammermuirs.  Mr.  Stevenson  had 
recently  discovered  them,  he  stated,  near  Preston-haugh,  about  two 
miles  north  of  Dunse,  in  a  fine  section  of  alternating  Sandstone  and 
conglomerate  strata  that  lie  unconformably  on  the  grauwacke.  They 
consist  of  scales  and  occipital  plates  of  the  Holoptychius,  with  the  re- 
mains of  a  bulky,  but  very  imperfectly  preserved  ichthyodorulite  ; 
and  the  coarse,  arenaceous  matrices  which  surround  them  seem  iden- 
tical with  the  red  gritty  Sandstones  of  the  Imdhorn  and  the  Scat- 
Craig, 


132 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


Caithness,  and  Cromarty,  and  studied  their  peculiarities ;  and 
yet,  on  being  introduced  last  year  to  the  discoveries  of  Mr. 
Webster  at  Balruddery,  he  found  his  acquaintance  with  both 
the  upper  and  lower  groups  stand  him  in  but  the  same  stead 
that  his  first  acquired  knowledge  of  the  upper  group  had 
stood  him  a  few  years  before.  He  agreed  with  Agassiz  in 
pronouncing  the  group  at  Balruddery  essentially  a  new  group. 
Add  to  this  evidence  the  well  weighed  testimony  of  Mr.  Murch- 
ison  regarding  the  three  formations  which  the  Old  Red  Sand- 
stone contains  in  England,  where  the  entire  system  is  found 
continuous,  the  Cornstone  overlying  the  Tilestone,  and  the 
Quartzose  conglomerate  the  Cornstone ;  take  into  account  the 
fact  that,  there,  each  formation  has  its  characteristic  fossil, 
identical  with  some  characteristic  fossil  of  the  corresponding 
formation  of  Scotland  —  that  the  Tilestones  of  the  one,  and 
the  lower  group  of  the  other,  have  their  Dipterus  in  com- 
mon—  that  the  Cornstones  of  the  one,  and  the  middle  group 
of  the  other,  have  their  Cephalaspis  in  common  —  that  the 
Quartzose  conglomerate  of  the  one,  and  the  upper  group  of 
the  other,  have  their  Holopty  chins  in  common ;  and  then  say 
whether  the  proofs  of  distinct  succeeding  formations  can  be 
more  surely  established.  If,  however,  the  reader  still  enter- 
tain a  doubt,  let  him  consult  the  singularly  instructive  section 
of  the  entire  system,  from  the  Carboniferous  Limestone  to 
the  Upper  Silurian,  given  by  Mr.  Murchison,  in  his  Silurian 
System,  (Part  II.,  Plate  XXXI.,  fig.  1,)  and  he  will  find  the 
doubt  vanish.  But  to  return  to  the  fossils  of  the  Cornstone 
group. 

The  characteristic  fossil  of  this  deposit,  the  Cejihalaspis, 
occurs  in  considerable  abundance  in  Forfarshire,  and  in  a 
much  more  entire  state  than  in  the  Cornstones  of  England 
and  Wales.    The  rocks  to  which  it  belongs  are  also  devel- 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


133 


oped,  though  more  sparingly,  in  the  northern  extremity  of 
Fife,  in  a  line  parallel  to  the  southern  shores  of  the  Tay. 
But  of  all  the  localities  yet  known,  the  Den  of  Balruddery  is 
that  in  which  the  peculiar  organisms  of  the  formation  may  be 
studied  with  best  effect.  The  oryctology  of  the  Cornstones  of 
England  seems  restricted  to  four  species  of  the  Cephalaspis. 
In  Fife,  all  the  organisms  of  the  formation  yet  discovered  are 
exclusively  vegetable  —  darkened  impressions  of  stems  like 
those  of  the  inferior  ichthyolite  beds,  confusedly  mixed  with 
what  seem  slender  and  pointed  leaflets  drawn  in  black,  and 
numerous  circular  forms,  which  have  been  deemed  the  re- 
mains of  the  seed-vessels  of  some  unknown  sub-aerial  plant. 
"  These  last  occur,"  says  Professor  Fleming,  the  original  dis- 
coverer, u  in  the  form  of  circular  flat  patches,  not  equalling 
an  inch  in  diameter,  and  composed  of  numerous  smaller  con- 
tiguous circular  pieces  ;  "  the  tout  ensemble  resembling  "  what 
might  be  expected  to  result  from  a  compressed  berry,  such  as 
the  bramble  or  the  rasp."  In  Forfarshire,  the  remains  of  the 
Cephalaspis  are  found  associated  with  impressions  of  a  differ- 
ent character,  though  equally  obscure  —  impressions  of  pol- 
ished surfaces  carved  into  seeming  scales  ;  but  in  Balruddery 
alone  are  the  vegetable  impressions  of  the  one  locality,  and 
the  scaly  impressions  of  the  other,  together  with  the  charac- 
teristic ichthyolites  of  England  and  Forfarshire,  found  asso- 
ciated with  numerous  fossils  besides,  many  of  them  obscure, 
but  all  of  them  of  interest,  and  all  of  them  new  to  Geology. 

One  of  the  strangest  organisms  of  the  formation  is  a  fossil 
lobster,  of  such  huge  proportions,  that  one  of  the  average 
sized  lobsters,  common  in  our  markets,  might  stretch  its  en- 
tire length  across  the  continuous  tail-flap  in  which  the  crea- 
ture terminated.  And  it  is  a  marked  characteristic  of  the 
fossil,  that  the  terminal  flap  should  be  continuous ;  in  all  the 
12 


134 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


existing  varieties  with  which  I  am  acquainted,  it  is  divided  into 
angular  sections.  The  claws  nearly  resembled  those  of  the 
common  lobster ;  their  outline  is  similar ;  there  is  the  same 
hawk-bill  curvature  outside,  and  the  inner  sides  of  the  pincers 
are  armed  with  similar  teeth-like  tubercles.  The  immense 
shield  which  covered  the  upper  part  of  the  creature's  body  is 
more  angular  than  in  the  existing  varieties,  and  resembles, 
both  in  form  and  size,  one  of  those  lozenge-shaped  shields 
worn  by  knights  of  the  middle  ages  on  gala  days,  rather  for 
ornament  than  use,  and  on  which  the  herald  still  inscribes  the 
armorial  bearing  of  ladies  who  bear  title  in  their  own  right. 
As  shown  in  some  of  the  larger  specimens,  the  length  of  this 
gigantic  crustacean  must  have  exceeded  four  feet.  Its  shelly 
armor  was  delicately  fretted  with  the  forms  of  circular  or 
elliptical  scales.  On  all  the  many  plates  of  which  it  was 
composed  we  see  these  described  by  gracefully  waved  lines, 
and  rising  apparently  from  under  one  another,  row  beyond 
row.  They  were,  however,  as  much  the  mere  semblance  of 
scales  as  those  relieved  by  the  sculptor  on  the  corslet  of  a 
warrior's  effigy  on  a  Gothic  tomb  —  mere  sculpturings  on  the 
surface  of  the  shell.  This  peculiarity  may  be  regarded  as 
throwing  light  on  the  hitherto  doubtful  impressions  of  the 
sandstone  of  Forfarshire  —  impressions,  as  has  been  said,  of 
smooth  surfaces  carved  into  seeming  scales.  They  occur  as 
impressions  merely,  the  sandstone  retaining  no  more  of  the 
original  substance  of  the  organism  than  the  impressed  wax 
does  of  the  substance  of  the  seal ;  and  the  workmen  in  the 
quarries  in  which  they  occur,  finding  form  without  body,  and 
struck  by  the  resemblance  which  the  delicately  waved  scales 
bear  to  the  sculptured  markings  on  the  wings  of  cherubs- — of 
all  subjects  of  the  chisel  the  most  common  —  fancifully  termed 
them  Seraphim.    They  have  turned  out,  as  was  anticipated, 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


135 


to  be  the  detached  plates  of  some  such  crustacean  as  the  lob- 
ster of  Balruddery. 

The  ability  displayed  by  Cuvier  in  restoring,  from  a  few 
broken  fragments  of  bone,  the  skeleton  of  the  entire  animal 
to  which  the  fragments  had  belonged,  astonished  the  world 
He  had  learned  to  interpret  signs  as  incomprehensible  to 
every  one  else  as  the  mysterious  handwriting  on  the  wall  had 
been  to  the  courtiers  of  Belshazzar.  The  condyle  of  a  jaw 
became  in  his  hands  a  key  to  the  character  of  the  original 
possessor  ;  and  in  a  few  mouldering  vertebrae,  or  in  the  dilap- 
idated bones  of  a  fore-arm  or  a  foot,  he  could  read  a  curious 
history  of  habits  and  instincts.  In  common  with  several  gen- 
tlemen of  Edinburgh,  all  men  known  to  science,  I  was  as 
much  struck  with  the  skill  displayed  by  Agassiz  in  piecing 
together  the  fragments  of  the  huge  crustacean  of  Balruddery, 
and  in  demonstrating  its  nature  as  such.  The  numerous 
specimens  of  Mr.  Webster  were  opened  out  before  us.  On 
a  previous  morning  I  had  examined  them,  as  I  have  said,  in 
the  company  of  Mr.  Murchison  and  Dr.  Buckland  ;  they  had 
been  seen  also  by  Lord  Greenock,  Dr.  Traill,  and  Mr.  Charles 
M'Laren ;  and  their  fragments  of  new  and  undescribed  fishes 
had  been  at  once  recognized  with  reference  to  at  least  their 
class.  But  the  collection  contained  organisms  of  a  different 
kind,  which  seemed  inexplicable  to  all  —  forms  of  various 
design,  but  so  regularly  mathematical  in  their  outlines  that 
they  might  be  all  described  by  a  ruler  and  a  pair  of  com- 
passes, and  yet  the  whole  were  covered  by  seeming  scales. 
There  were  the  fragments  of  scaly  rhombs,  of  scaly  cres- 
cents, of  scaly  circles,  with  scaly  parallelograms  attached  to 
them,  and  of  several  other  regular  compound  figures  besides. 
Mr.  Murchison,  familiar  with  the  older  fossils,  remarked  the 
close  resemblance  of  the  seeming  scales  to  those  of  the  Ser- 


136 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


aphim  of  Forfarshire,  but  deferred  the  whole  to  the  judgment 
of  Agassiz  ;  no  one  else  hazarded  a  conjecture.  Agassiz 
glanced  over  the  collection.  One  specimen  especially  caught 
his  attention  —  an  elegantly  symmetrical  one.  It  seemed  a 
combination  of  the  parallelogram  and  the  crescent :  there 
were  pointed  horns  at  each  end  ;  but  the  convex  and  concave 
lines  of  the  opposite  sides  passed  into  almost  parallel  right 
lines  towards  the  centre.  His  eye  brightened  as  he  contem- 
plated it.  "  I  will  tell  you,"  he  said,  turning  to  the  company 
—  "I  will  tell  you  what  these  are  — the  remains  of  a  huge 
lobster.''  He  arranged  the  specimens  in  the  group  before 
him  with  as  much  apparent  ease  as  I  have  seen  a  young  girl 
arranging  the  pieces  of  ivory  or  mother-of-pearl  in  an  Indian 
puzzle.  A  few  broken  pieces  completed  the  lozenge-shaped 
shield ;  two  detached  specimens,  placed  on  its  opposite  sides, 
furnished  the  claws  ;  two  or  three  semi-rings,  with  serrated 
edges,  composed  the  jointed  body  ;  the  compound  figure, 
which  but  a  minute  before  had  so  strongly  attracted  his  atten- 
tion, furnished  the  terminal  flap  ;  and  there  lay  the  huge  lob- 
ster before  us,  palpable  to  all.  There  is  homage  due  to 
supereminent  genius,  which  nature  spontaneously  pays  when 
there  are  no  low  feelings  of  envy  or  jealousy  to  interfere 
with  her  operations ;  and  the  reader  may  well  believe  that  it 
was  willingly  rendered  on  this  occasion  to  the  genius  of 
Agassiz. 

The  terminal  flap  of  this  gigantic  crustacean  was,  as  I 
have  said,  continuous.  The  creature,  however,  seems  to 
have  had  contemporaries  of  the  same  family,  whose  construc- 
tion in  the  divisions  of  the  flap  resembled  more  the  lobsters 
of  the  present  day ;  and  the  reader  may  see  in  the  subjoined 
print  the  representation  of  a  very  characteristic  fragment  of 
an  animal  of  this  commoner  type,  from  the  Middle  Sandstones 


LIBRARY 
OF  THE 

UNIVERSiTY  OF  ILLINOIS 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


137 


of  Forfarshire.  (See  Plate  IX.,  fig.  1.)  It  is  a  terminal 
flap  —  one  of  several  divisions  —  curiously  fretted  by  scale- 
like markings,  and  bearing  on  its  lower  edge  a  fringe,  cut 
into  angular  points,  somewhat  in  the  style  of  the  Vandyke 
edgings  of  a  ruff  or  the  lacings  of  a  dead-dress.  It  may  be 
remarked,  in  passing,  that  our  commoner  lobsters  bear,  on 
the  corresponding  edge,  fringes  of  strong,  reddish-colored 
hair.  The  form  altogether,  from  its  wing-like  appearance, 
its  feathery  markings,  and  its  angular  points,  will  suggest  to 
the  reader  the  origin  of  the  name  given  it  by  the  Forfarshire 
workmen.  With  another  such  flap  spreading  out  in  the  con- 
trary direction,  and  a  periwigged  head  between  them,  we 
would  have  one  of  the  sandstone  cherubs  of  our  country 
churchyards  complete. 

There  occur  among  the  other  organisms  of  Balruddery 
numerous  ichthyodorulites  —  fin-spines,  such  as  those  to 
which  I  have  called  the  attention  of  the  reader  in  describing 
the  thorny-finned  fish  of  the  lower  formation.  But  the  ich- 
thyodorulites of  Balruddery  differ  essentially  from  those  of 
Caithness,  Moray,  and  Cromarty.  These  last  are  described 
on  both  sides,  in  every  instance,  by  either  straight,  or  slightly 
curved  lines  ;  whereas  one  of  the  describing  lines  in  a  Bal- 
ruddery variety  is  broken  by  projecting  prickles,  that  re- 
semble sharp,  hooked  teeth  set  in  a  jaw,  or,  rather,  the  entire 
ichthyodorulite  resembles  the  sprig  of  a  wild  rose-bush, 
bearing  its  peculiar  aquiline  shaped  thorns  on  one  of  its 
sides.  Buckland,  in  his  Bri&gewater  Treatise,  and  Lyell,  in 
his  Elements,  refer  to  this  peculiarity  of  structure  in  ichthy- 
odorulites of  the  latter  formations.  The  hooks  are  invariably 
ranged  on  the  concave  or  posterior  edge  of  the  spine,  and 
were  employed,  it  is  supposed,  in  elevating  the  fin.  Another 
ichthyodorulite  of  the  formation  resembles,  in  the  Gothic 
12* 


138 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


cast  of  its  roddings,  those  of  the  Diplacanthus  of  the  Lower 
Old  Red  Sandstone  described  in  pages  125  and  126  of  the 
present  volume,  and  figured  in  Plate  VIII.,  fig.  2,  except  that 
it  was  proportionally  stouter,  and  traversed  at  its  base  by 
lines  running  counter  to  the  striae  that  furrow  it  longitudinally. 
Of  the  other  organisms  of  Balruddery  I  cannot  pretend  to 
speak  with  any  degree  of  certainty.  Some  of  them  seem  to 
have  belonged  to  the  Radiata ;  some  are  of  so  doubtful  a 
character  that  it  can  scarce  be  determined  whether  they  took 
their  place  among  the  forms  of  the  vegetable  or  animal  king- 
doms. One  organism  in  particular,  which  was  at  first  deemed 
the  jointed  stem  of  some  plant  resembling  a  calamite  of  the 
Coal  Measures,  was  found  by  Agassiz  to  be  the  slender  limb 
of  a  crustacean.  A  minute  description  of  this  interesting  de- 
posit, with  illustrative  prints,  would  be  of  importance  to  sci- 
ence :  it  would  serve  to  fill  a  gap  in  the  scale.  The  geologi- 
cal pathway,  which  leads  upwards  to  the  present  time  from 
those  ancient  formations  in  which  organic  existence  first 
began,  has  been  the  work  of  well  nigh  as  many  hands  as 
some  of  our  longer  railroads  :  each  contractor  has  taken  his 
part ;  very  extended  parts  have  fallen  to  the  share  of  some, 
and  admirably  have  they  executed  them  ;  but  the  pathway  is 
not  yet  complete,  and  the  completion  of  a  highly  curious 
portion  of  it  awaits  the  further  labors  of  Mr.  Webster,  of 
Balruddery. 

A  considerable  portion  of  the  rocks  of  this  middle  forma- 
tion in  Scotland  are  of  a  bluish-gray  color :  in  Balruddery, 
they  resemble  the  mudstones  of  the  Silurian  System  ;  they 
form  at  Carmylie  the  fissile,  bluish-gray  pavement,  so  well 
known  in  commerce  as  the  pavement  of  Arbroath  ;  they 
occur  as  a  hard,  micaceous  building-stone  in  some  parts  of 
Fifeshire ;  in  others  they  exist  as  beds  of  friable,  stratified 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


139 


clay,  that  dissolve  into  unctuous  masses  where  washed  by 
the  sea.  In  England,  the  formation  consists,  throughout  its 
entire  depth,  of  beds  of  red  and  green  marl,  with  alternating 
beds  of  the  nodular  limestones,  to  which  it  owes  its  name, 
and  with  here  and  there  an  interposing  band  of  indurated 
sandstone. 

The  Cornstone  formation  is  more  extensively  developed  in 
Forfarshire  than  in  any  other  district  in  Scotland  ;  and  from 
this  circumstance  the  result  of  the  writer's  observations  re- 
garding it,  during  the  course  of  a  recent  visit,  may  be  of 
some  little  interest  to  the  reader.  About  two  thirds  the  en- 
tire area  of  this  county  is  composed  of  Old  Red  Sandstone. 
It  forms  a  portion  of  that  great  belt  of  the  system  which,  ex- 
tending across  the  island  from  the  German  Ocean  to  the  Frith 
of  Clyde,  represents  the  southern  bar  of  the  huge  sandstone 
frame  in  which  the  Highlands  of  Scotland  is  set.  The  Gram- 
pians run  along  its  inner  edge  —  composing  part  of  the  pri- 
mary nucleus  which  the  frame  encloses  :  the  Sidlaw  Hills 
run  through  its  centre  in  a  line  nearly  parallel  to  these,  and 
separated  from  them  by  Strathmore,  the  great  valley  of  An- 
gus. The  valley  and  the  hills  thus  form,  if  I  may  so  express 
myself,  the  mouldings  of  the  frame  —  mouldings  somewhat 
resembling  the  semi-recta  of  the  architect.  There  is  first, 
reckoning  from  the  mountains  downwards,  an  immense  con- 
cave curve  —  the  valley  ;  then  an  immense  convex  one  —  the 
hills  ;  and  then  a  half  curve  bounded  by  the  sea.  The  illus- 
tration may  further  serve  to  show  the  present  condition  of  the 
formation:  it  is  a  frame  much  worn  by  denudation,  and  — 
just  as  in  a  bona  fide  frame  —  it  is  the  higher  mouldings  that 
have  suffered  most.  Layer  after  layer  has  been  worn  down 
on  the  ridges,  exactly  as  on  a  raised  moulding  we  may  see 
the  gold  leaf,  the  red  pigment,  and  the  whiting,  all  ground 


140 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


down  to  the  wood  ;  while  in  the  hollow  moulding  beside  it,  on 
the  contrary,  the  gilt  is  still  fresh  and  entire.  We  find  in  the 
hollows  the  superior  layers  of  the  frame  still  overlying  the 
inferior  ones,  and  on  the  heights  the  inferior  ones  laid  bare. 
To  descend  in  the  system,  therefore,  we  have  to  climb  a  hill 
—  to  rise  in  it,  we  have  to  descend  into  a  valley.  We  find 
the  lowest  beds  of  the  system  any  where  yet  discovered  in 
the  county  on  the  moory  heights  of  Carmylie  ;  its  newer  de- 
posits may  be  found  on  the  sea-shore,  beside  the  limeworks 
of  Hedderwick,  and  in  the  central  hollows  of  Strathmore. 

The  most  ancient  beds  in  the  county  yet  known  belong,  as 
unequivocally  shown  by  their  fossils,  to  but  the  middle  forma- 
tion of  the  system.  They  have  been  quarried  for  many 
years  in  the  parish  of  Carmylie  ;  and  the  quarries,  as  may 
be  supposed,  are  very  extensive,  stretching  along  a  moory 
hill-side  for  considerably  more  than  a  mile,  and  furnishing 
employment  to  from  sixty  to  a  hundred  workmen.  The  eye 
is  first  caught,  in  approaching  them,  as  we  surmount  a  long, 
flat  ridge,  which  shuts  them  out  from  the  view  of  the  distant 
sea,  by  what  seems  a  line  of  miniature  windmills,  the  sails 
flaring  with  red  lead,  and  revolving  with  the  lightest  breeze 
at  more  than  double  the  rate  of  the  sails  of  ordinary  mills. 
These  are  employed  — a  lesson  probably  borrowed  from  the 
Dutch  —  in  draining  the  quarries,  and  throw  up  a  very  con- 
siderable body  of  water.  The  line  of  the  excavations  resem- 
bles a  huge  drain,  with  nearly  perpendicular  sides  —  a  conse- 
quence of  the  regular  and  well-determined  character  of  the 
joints  with  which  the  strata  are  bisected.  The  stone  itself  is 
a  gray,  close-grained  fissile  sandstone,  of  unequal  hardness, 
and  so  very  tough  and  coherent  —  qualities  which  it  seems 
to  owe  in  part  to  the  vast  abundance  of  mica  which  it  con- 
tains—  that  it  is  quite  possible  to  strike  a  small  hammer 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


141 


through  some  of  the  larger  flags,  without  shattering  the  edges 
of  the  perforation.  Hence  its  value  for  various  purposes 
which  common  sandstone  is  too  brittle  and  incoherent  to 
serve.  It  is  extensively  used  in  the  neighborhood  as  a  roofing 
slate  ;  it  is  employed,  too,  in  the  making  of  water  cisterns, 
grooved  and  jointed  as  if  wrought  out  of  wood,  and  for  the 
tops  of  lobby  and  billiard  tables.  I  have  even  seen  snuff- 
boxes fashioned  out  of  it,  as  a  sort  of  mechanical  feat  by  the 
workmen,  —  a  purpose,  however,  which  it  seems  to  serve  only 
indifferently  well,  —  and  single  slabs  of  it  cut  into  tolerably 
neat  window  frames  for  cottages.  It  is  most  extensively  used, 
however,  merely  as  a  paving-stone  for  lobbies  and  lower 
floors,  and  the  footways  of  streets.  When  first  deposited,  and 
when  the  creatures  whose  organic  remains  it  still  preserves 
careered  over  its  numerous  platforms,  it  seems  to  have  existed 
as  a  fine,  muddy  sand,  formed  apparently  of  disintegrated 
grauwacke  rocks,  analogous  in  their  mineral  character  to  the 
similarly  colored  grauwacke  of  the  Lammermuirs,  or  of  pri- 
mary slates  ground  down  by  attrition  into  mud,  and  mixed  up 
with  the  pulverized  fragments  of  schistose  gneiss  and  mica 
schist. 

I  was  first  struck,  on  descending  among  the  workmen,  by 
the  comparative  abundance  of  the  vegetable  remains.  In 
some  parts  of  the  quarries  almost  every  layer  of  the  strata  is 
covered  by  carbonaceous  markings  —  irregularly  grooved 
stems,  branching  oat  into  boughs  at  acute  angles,  and  that  at 
the  first  glance  seem  the  miniature  semblances  of  the  trunks 
of  gnarled  oaks  and  elms,  blackened  in  a  morass,  and  still 
retaining  the  rough  bark,  chapped  into  furrows  :  oblong,  leaf- 
like impressions,  too,  and  impressions  of  more  slender  form, 
that  resemble  the  narrow,  parallel  edged  leaves  of  the  sea- 
grass  weed.    I  observed,  in  particular,  one  large  bunch  of 


142 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


riband-like  leaflets  converging  into  a  short  stem,  so  that  the 
whole  resembled  a  scourge  of  cords ;  and  I  would  fain  have 
detached  it  from  the  rock,  but  it  lay  on  a  mouldering  film  of 
clay,  and  broke  up  with  my  first  attempt  to  remove  it.  A 
stalk  of  sea-grass  weed  plucked  up  by  the  roots,  and  com- 
pressed in  a  herbarium,  would  present  a  somewhat  similar 
appearance.  Among  the  impressions  there  occur  irregularly 
shaped  patches,  reticulated  into  the  semblance  of  polygonal 
meshes.  They  remind  one  of  pieces  of  ill-woven  lace  ;  for 
the  meshes  are  unequal  in  size,  and  the  polygons  irregular. 
(See  Plate  IX.,  fig.  2.)  When  first  laid  open,  every  mesh  is 
filled  with  a  carbonaceous  speck  ;  and  from  their  supposed 
resemblance  to  the  eggs  of  the  frog,  the  workmen  term  them 
puddock  spaivn.  They  are  supposed  by  Mr.  Lyell  to  form 
the  remains  of  the  eggs  of  some  gasteropodous  mollusc  of  the 
period.  I  saw  one  flagstone,  in  particular,  so  covered  with 
these  reticulated  patches,  and  so  abundant,  besides,  in  vegeta- 
ble impressions  of  both  the  irregularly  furrowed  and  grass- 
weed-looking  class,  that  I  could  compare  it  to  only  the  bottom 
of  a  ditch  beside  a  hedge,  matted  with  withered  grass, 
strewed  with  blackened  twigs  of  the  hawthorn,  and  mottled 
with  detached  masses  of  the  eggs  of  the  frog.  All  the  larger 
vegetables  are  resolved  into  as  pure  a  coal  as  the  plants  of 
the  Coal  Measures  themselves  —  the  kind  of  data,  doubtless, 
on  which  unfortunate  coal  speculators  have  often  earned  dis- 
appointment at  large  expense.  None  of  the  vegetables 
themselves,  however,  in  the  least  resemble  those  of  the  car- 
boniferous period. 

The  animal  remains,  though  less  numerous,  are  more 
interesting.  They  are  identical  with  those  of  the  Den  of 
Balruddery.  I  saw,  in  the  possession  of  the  superintend- 
ent of  the  quarries,  a  well-preserved  head  of  the  Cephalas- 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


143 


pis  Lyellii.  The  crescent-shaped  horns  were  wanting, 
and  the  outline  a  little  obscure  ;  but  the  eyes  were  better 
marked  than  in  almost  any  other  specimen  I  have  yet 
seen,  and  the  circular  star-like  tubercles  which  roughen 
the  large  occipital  buckler,  to  which  the  creature  owes  its 
name,  were  tolerably  well  defined.  I  was  shown  the  head 
of  another  individual  of  the  same  species  in  the  centre  of  a 
large  slab,  and  nothing  could  be  more  entire  than  the  outline. 
The  osseous  plate  still  retained  the  original  brownish-white 
hue  of  the  bone,  arid  its  radiated  porous  texture  ;  and  the 
sharp  crescent-shaped  horns  were  as  sharply  defined  as  dur- 
ing the  lifetime  of  the  strangely  organized  creature  which 
they  had  defended.  In  both  specimens  the  thin  angular  body 
was  wanting.  Like  almost  all  the  other  fish  of  the  Old 
Red  Sandstone,  the  bony  skeleton  of  the  Cephalaspis  was 
external  —  as  much  so  as  the  shell  of  the  crab  or  lobster  :  it 
presented  at  all  points  an  armor  of  bone,  as  complete  as  if 
it  had  been  carved  by  the  ivory-turner  out  of  a  solid  block ; 
while  the  internal  skeleton,  which  in  every  instance  has  dis- 
appeared, seems  to  have  been  composed  of  cartilage.  I 
have  compared  its  general  appearance  to  a  saddler's  cutting- 
knife  ; —  I  should,  perhaps,  have  said  a  saddler's  cutting- 
knife  divested  of  the  wooden  handle  —  the  broad,  bony  head 
representing  the  blade,  and  the  thin  angular  body  the  iron  stem 
usually  fixed  in  the  wood.  No  existence  of  the  present  crea- 
tion at  all  resembles  the  Cephalaspis.  Were  we  introduced 
to  the  living  creatures  which  now  inhabit  the  oceans  and  riv- 
ers of  Mars  and  Venus,  we  could  find  nothing  among  them 
more  strange  in  appearance,  or  more  unlike  our  living 
acquaintances  of  the  friths  and  streams,  than  the  Cephalas- 
pides  of  Carmylie. 

I  observed,  besides,  in  the  quarry,  remains  of  the  huge 


144  THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 

crustacean  of  Balruddery.  The  plates  of  the  Cejphalaspis 
retain  the  color  of  the  original  bone ;  the  plates  of  the  crusta- 
cean, on  the  contrary,  are  of  a  deep  red  tint,  which  contrasts 
strongly  with  the  cold  gray  of  the  stone.  They  remind  one, 
both  in  shape  and  hue,  of  pieces  of  ancient  iron  armor,  fretted 
into  semi-elliptical  scales,  and  red  with  rust.  I  saw  with  one 
of  the  workmen  what  seemed  to  have  been  the  continuous 
tail-flap  of  an  individual  of  very  considerable  size.  It  seemed 
curiously  puckered  where  it  had  joined  to  the  body,  much  in 
the  manner  that  a  gown  or  Highlander's  kilt  is  puckered 
where  it  joins  to  the  waistband  ;  and  the  outline  of  the  whole 
plate  was  marked  by  what  I  may  venture  to  term  architectural 
elegance.  The  mathematician  could  have  described  it  with 
his  ruler  and  compasses.  The  superintendent  pointed  out  to 
me  another  plate  in  a  slab  dressed  for  a  piece  of  common 
pavement.  It  was  a  regularly  formed  parallelogram,  and  had 
obviously  composed  one  of  the  jointed  plates  which  had  cov- 
ered the  creature's  body.  I  could  not  so  easily  assign  its 
place  to  yet  a  third  plate  in  the  possession  of  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Wilson,  of  Canny  lie.  It  is  colored,  like  the  others,  and  like 
them,  too,  fretted  into  minute  scales,  but  the  form  is  exactly 
that  of  a  heart  —  not  such  a  heart  as  the  anatomist  would 
draw,  but  such  a  heart,  rather,  as  we  see  at  times  on  valen- 
tines of  the  humbler  order,  or  on  the  ace  of  hearts  in  a  pack 
of  cards.  Possibly  enough  it  may  have  been  the  breastplate 
of  this  antique  crustacean  of  the  Cornstones.  The  spawn  of 
our  common  blue  lobster  is  composed  of  spherical  black 
grains,  of  nearly  the  size  of  mustard-seed.  It  struck  me  as 
not  very  improbable  that  the  reticulated  markings  of  the  flag- 
stones of  Carmylie  may  have  been  produced  by  the  minute 
eggs  of  this  fossil  crustacean,  covered  up  by  some  hastily 
deposited  layer  of  mingled  mud  and  sand,  and  forced  into  the 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


145 


polygonal  form  by  pressing  against  each  other,  and  by  the 
weight  from  above. 

The  gray  fissile  bed  in  which  these  organisms  occur  was 
perforated  to  its  base  on  two  several  occasions,  and  in  different 
parts  of  the  quarries  —  in  one  instance,  merely  to  ascertain 
its  depth  ;  in  the  other,  in  the  course  of  excavating  a  tunnel. 
In  the  one  case  it  was  found  to  rest  on  a  bed  of  trap,  which 
seemed  to  have  insinuated  itself  among  the  strata  with  as  little 
disturbance,  and  which  lay  nearly  as  conformably  to  them  as 
the  greenstone  bed  of  Salisbury  Crags  does  to  the  alternating 
sandstones  and  clays  which  both  underlie  and  overtop  it.  In 
the  other  instance  the  excavators  arrived  at  a  red,  aluminous 
sandstone,  veined  by  a  purplish-colored  oxide  of  iron.  The 
upper  strata  of  the  quarry  are  overlaid  by  a  thick  bed  of 
grayish-red  conglomerate. 

Leaving  behind  us  the  quarries  of  Carmylie,  we  descend  the 
hill-side,  and  rise  in  the  system  as  we  lower  our  level  and 
advance  upon  the  sea.  For  a  very  considerable  distance  we 
find  the  rock  covered  up  by  a  deep-red  diluvial  clay,  largely 
charged  with  water-worn  boulders,  chiefly  of  the  older  pri- 
mary rocks,  and  of  the  sandstone  underneath.  The  soil  on 
the  higher  grounds  is  moory  and  barren  —  a  consequence, 
in  great  part,  of  a  hard,  ferruginous  pan,  which  interposes 
like  a  paved  floor  between  the  diluvium  and  the  upper  mould, 
and  which  prevents  the  roots  of  the  vegetation  from  striking 
downwards  into  the  tenacious  subsoil.  From  its  impervious 
character,  too,  it  has  the  effect  of  rendering  the  surface  a  bog 
for  one  half  the  year,  and  an  arid,  sun-baked  waste  for  the 
other.  It  seems  not  improbable  that  the  heaths  which  must 
have  grown  and  decayed  on  these  heights  for  many  ages,  may 
have  been  main  agents  in  the  formation  of  this  pavement  of 
barrenness.  Of  all  plants,  they  are  said  to  contain  most  iron. 
13 


146 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


According  to  Fourcroy,  a  full  twelfth  part  of  the  weight  of 
oak,  when  dried,  is  owing  to  the  presence  of  this  almost  uni- 
versally diffused  metal  ;  and  the  proportion  in  our  common 
heaths  is  still  larger.  It  seems  easy  to  conceive  how  that,  as 
generation  after  generation  withered  on  these  heights,  and 
were  slowly  resolved  into  a  little  mossy  dust,  the  minute  me- 
tallic particles  which  they  had  contained  would  he  carried 
downwards  by  the  rains  through  the  lighter  stratum  of  soil, 
till,  reaching  the  impermeable  platform  of  tenacious  clay  be- 
neath, they  would  gradually  accumulate  there,  and  at  length 
bind  its  upper  layer,  as  is  the  nature  of  ferruginous  oxide, 
into  a  continuous  stony  crust.  Bog  iron,  and  the  clay  iron- 
stone, so  abundant  in  the  Coal  Measures,  and  so  extensively 
employed  in  our  iron-works,  seem  to  have  owed  their  accu- 
mulation in  layers  and  nodules  to  a  somewhat  similar  process, 
through  the  agency  of  vegetation.    But  I  digress. 

The  rock  appears  in  the  course  of  the  Elliot,  a  few  hun- 
dred yards  above  the  pastoral  village  of  Arbirlot.  We  find 
it  uptilted  on  a  mass  of  claystone  amygdaloid,  that  has  here 
raised  its  broad  back  to  the  surface  amid  the  middle  shales 
and  sandstones  of  the  system.  The  stream  runs  over  the 
intruded  mass  ;  and  where  the  latter  terminates,  and  the 
sandstones  lean  against  it,  the  waters  leap  from  the  harder  to 
the  softer  rock,  immediately  beside  the  quiet  parish  burying- 
ground,  in  a  cascade  of  some  eight  or  ten  feet.  From  this 
point,  for  a  full  mile  downwards,  we  find  an  almost  continuous 
section  of  the  sandstone  —  stratum  leaning  against  stratum 
—  in  an  angle  of  about  thirty.  The  portion  of  the  system 
thus  exhibited  must  amount  to  many  hundred  yards  in  vertical 
extent ;  but  as  I  could  discover  no  data  by  which  to  deter- 
mine regarding  the  space  which  may  intervene  between  its 
lowest  stratum  and  the  still  lower  beds  of  Carmylie,  I  could 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


147 


form  no  guess  respecting  the  thickness  of  the  whole.  In  a 
bed  of  shale,  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  below  the  village,  I 
detected  several  of  the  vegetable  impressions  of  Carmylie, 
especially  those  of  the  grass-weed  looking  class,  and  an  im- 
perfectly preserved  organism  resembling  the  parallelogrami- 
cal  scale  of  a  Cephalaspis.  The  same  plants  and  animals 
seem  to  have  existed  on  this  high  platform  as  on  the  Carmy- 
lie platform  far  beneath. 

A  little  farther  down  the  course  of  the  stream,  and  in  the 
immediate  neighborhood  of  the  old  weather-worn  tower  of 
the  Ouchterlonies,  there  occurs  what  seems  a  break  in  the 
strata.  The  newer  sandstones  seem  to  rest  unconformably 
on  the  older  sandstones  which  they  overlie.  The  evening  on 
which  I  explored  the  course  of  the  Elliot  was  drizzly  and  un- 
pleasant, and  the  stream  swollen  by  a  day  of  continuous  rain, 
and  so  I  could  not  examine  so  minutely  as  in  other  circum- 
stances I  would  have  done,  or  as  was  necessary  to  establish 
the  fact.  In  since  turning  over  the  Elements  of  Lyell,  how- 
ever, I  find,  in  his  section  of  Forfarshire,  that  a  newer  deposit 
of  nearly  horizontal  strata  of  sandstone  and  conglomerate 
lies  unconformably,  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  sea,  on  the 
older  sandstones  of  the  district ;  and  the  appearances  ob- 
served near  the  old  tower  mark,  it  is  probable,  one  of  the 
points  of  junction  —  a  point  of  junction  also,  if  I  may  be  so 
bold  as  venture  the  suggestion,  of  the  formation  of  the 
Holoptychius  nobilissimus  with  the  formation  of  the  Cepha- 
laspis—  of  the  quartzose  conglomerate  with  the  Cornstones. 
In  my  hurried  survey,  however,  I  could  find  none  of  the  scales 
or  plates  of  the  newer  ichthyolite  in  this  upper  deposit,  though 
the  numerous  spherical  markings  of  white,  with  their  cen- 
trical points  of  darker  color,  show  that  at  one  time  the  organ- 
isms of  these  upper  beds  must  have  been  verv  abundant. 


148 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


We  pass  to  the  upper  formation  of  the  system.  Over  the 
belt  of  mingled  gray  and  red  there  occurs  in  the  pyramid  a 
second  deep  belt  of  red  conglomerate  and  variegated  sand- 
stone, with  a  band  of  lime  a- top,  and  over  the  band  a  thick 
belt  of  yellow  sandstone,  with  which  the  system  terminates.* 
Thus  the  second  pyramid  consists  mineralogically,  like  the 
first,  of  three  great  divisions,  or  bands  ;  its  two  upper  belts 
belonging,  like  the  three  belts  of  the  other,  to  but  one  forma- 
tion—  the  formation  known  in  England  as  the  Quartzose 
Conglomerate.  It  is  largely  developed  in  Scotland.  We 
find  it  spread  over  extensive  areas  in  Moray,  Fife,  Roxburgh, 
and  Berwick  shires.  In  England,  it  is  comparatively  barren 
in  fossils  ;  the  only  animal  organic  remains  yet  detected  in  it 
being  a  single  scale  of  the  Holoptychius  found  by  Mr.  Murch- 
ison  ;  and  though  it  contains  vegetable  organisms  in  more 
abundance,  so  imperfectly  are  they  preserved,  that  little  else 
can  be  ascertained  regarding  them  than  that  they  were  land 


*  There  still  exists  some  uncertainty  regarding  the  order  in  which 
the  upper  beds  occur.  Mr.  Duff,  of  Elgin,  places  the  limestone  band 
above  the  yellow  sandstone ;  Messrs.  Sedgwick  and  Murchison  assign 
it  an  intermediate  position  between  the  red  and  yellow.  The  respec- 
tive places  of  the  gray  and  red  sandstones  are  also  disputed,  and  by 
very  high  authorities  ;  Dr.  Fleming  holding  that  the  gray  sandstones 
overlie  the  red,  (see  Cheek's  Edinburgh  Journal  for  February,  1831,)  and 
Mr.  Lyell,  that  the  red  sandstones  overlie  the  gray,  (see  Elements  of 
Geology,  first  edit.,  pp.  99-100.)  The  order  adopted  above  consorts 
best  with  the  results  of  the  writer's  observations,  which  have,  how- 
ever, been  restricted  chiefly  to  the  north  country.  He  assigns  to  the 
limestone  band  the  middle  place  assigned  to  it  by  Messrs.  Sedgwick 
and  Murchison,  and  to  the  gray  sandstone  the  inferior  position  as- 
signed to  it  by  Mr.  Lyell ;  aware,  however,  that  the  latter  deposit 
has  not  only  a  coping,  but  also  a  basement,  of  red  sandstone  —  the 
basement  forming  the  upper  member  of  the  lower  formation. 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


149 


plants,  but  not  identical  with  the  plants  of  the  Coal  Measures. 
In  Scotland,  the  formation  is  richly  fossiliferous,  and  the  re- 
mains belong  chiefly  to  the  animal  kingdom.  It  is  richly  fos- 
siliferous, too,  in  Russia,  where  it  was  discovered  by  Mr. 
Murchison,  during  the  summer  of  last  year,  spread  over  areas 
many  thousand  square  miles  in  extent.  And  there,  as  in 
Scotland,  the  Holoptychius  seems  its  most  characteristic  fossil. 

The  fact  seems  especially  worthy  of  remark.  The  organ- 
isms of  some  of  the  newer  formations  differ  entirely,  in 
widely  separated  localities,  from  their  contemporary  organ- 
isms, just  as,  in  the  existing  state  of  things,  the  plants  and 
animals  of  Great  Britain  differ  from  the  plants  and  animals 
of  Lapland  or  of  Sierra  Leone.  A  geologist  who  has  ac- 
quainted himself  with  the  belemnites,  baculites,  turrilites,  and 
sea-urchins  of  the  Cretaceous  group  in  England  and  the 
north  of  France,  would  discover  that  he  had  got  into  an  en- 
tirely new  field  among  the  hippurites,  sphosrulites,  and  num- 
mulites  of  the  same  formations,  in  Greece,  Italy,  and  Spain  ; 
nor,  in  passing  the  tertiary  deposits,  would  he  find  less  strik- 
ing dissimilarities  between  the  gigantic,  mail-clad  megatheri- 
um and  huge  mastodon  of  the  Ohio  and  the  La  Plate,  and  the 
monsters,  their  contemporaries,  the  hairy  mammoth  of  Sibe- 
ria, and  the  hippopotamus  and  rhinoceros  of  England  and 
the  Continent.  In  the  more  ancient  geological  periods,  ere 
the  seasons  began,  the  case  is  essentially  different ;  the  con- 
temporary formations,  when  widely  separated,  are  often  very 
unlike  in  mineralogical  character,  but  in  their  fossil  contents 
they  are  almost  always  identical.  In  these  earlier  ages,  the 
atmospheric  temperature  seems  to  have  depended  more  on 
the  internal  heat  of  the  earth,  only  partially  cooled  down  from 
its  original  state,  than  on  the  earth's  configuration  or  the  in- 
fluence of  the  sun.  Hence  a  widely  spread  equality  of 
13* 


150 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


climate  —  a  greenhouse  equalization  of  heat,  if  I  may  so 
speak  ;  and  hence,  too,  it  would  seem,  a  widely  spread  Fauna 
and  Flora.  The  greenhouses  of  Scotland  and  Sweden  pro- 
duce the  same  plants  with  the  greenhouses  of  Spain  and 
Italy;  and  when  the  world  was  one  vast  greenhouse,  heated 
from  below,  the  same  families  of  plants,  and  the  same  tribes 
of  animals,  seem  to  have  ranged  over  spaces  immensely 
more  extended  than  those  geographical  circles  in  which,  in 
the  present  time,  the  same  plants  are  found  indigenous,  and 
the  same  animals  native.  The  fossil  remains  of  the  true 
Coal  Measures  are  the  same  to  the  westward  of  the  Alleghany 
Mountains  as  in  New  Holland,  India,  Southern  Africa,  the 
neighborhood  of  Newcastle,  and  the  vicinity  of  Edinburgh. 
And  I  entertain  little  doubt  that,  on  a  similar  principle,  the  still 
more  ancient  organisms  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  will  be 
found  to  bear  the  same  character  all  over  the  world. 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


151 


CHAPTER  IX. 

Fossils  of  the  Upper  Old  Red  Sandstone  much  more  imperfectly  pre- 
served than  those  of  the  Lower.  —  The  Causes  obvious.  —  Differ- 
ence between  the  two  Groups,  which  first  strikes  the  Observer,  a 
Difference  in  Size.  —  The  Holoptychius  a  characteristic  Ichthyolite 
of  the  Formation.  —  Description  of  its  huge  Scales.  —  Of  its  Oc- 
cipital Bones,  Fins,  Teeth,  and  General  Appearance.  —  Contempo- 
raries of  the  Holoptychius.  —  Sponge -like  Bodies.  —  Plates  resem- 
bling those  of  the  Sturgeon.  —  Teeth  of  various  Forms,  but  all 
evidently  the  Teeth  of  Fishes.  —  Limestone  Band,  and  its  probable 
Origin.  —  Fossils  of  the  Yellow  Sandstone.  —  The  Pterichthys  of 
Dura  Den.  —  Member  of  a  Family  peculiarly  characteristic  of  the 
System.  — No  intervening  Formation  between  the  Old  Red  Sand- 
stone and  the  Coal  Measures.  —  The  Holoptychius  contemporary  for 
a  time  with  the  Megalichthys.  —  The  Columns  of  Tubal  Cain. 

The  different  degrees  of  entireness  in  which  the  geologist 
finds  his  organic  remains,  depend  much  less  on  their  age  than 
on  the  nature  of  the  rock  in  which  they  occur ;  and  as  the 
arenaceous  matrices  of  the  Upper  and  Middle  Old  Red  Sand- 
stones have  been  less  favorable  to  the  preservation  of  their 
peculiar  fossils  than  the  calcareous  and  aluminous  matrices 
of  the  Lower,  we  frequently  find  the  older  organisms  of  the 
system  fresh  and  unbroken,  and  the  more  modern  existing  as 
mere  fragments.  A  fish  thrown  into  a  heap  of  salt  would  be 
found  entire  after  the  lapse  of  many  years ;  a  fish  thrown 
into  a  heap  of  sand  would  disappear  in  a  mass  of  putrefac- 
tion in  a  few  weeks ;  and  only  the  less  destructible  parts, 
such  as  the  teeth,  the  harder  bones,  and  perhaps  a  few  of  the 
scales,  would  survive.  Now,  limestone,  if  I  may  so  speak, 
is  the  preserving  salt  of  the  geological  world  ;  and  the  con- 


152 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


servative  qualities  of  the  shales  and  stratified  clays  of  the 
Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone  are  not  much  inferior  to  those  of 
lime  itself ;  while,  in  the  Upper  Old  Red,  we  have  merely 
beds  of  consolidated  sand,  and  these,  in  most  instances,  ren- 
dered less  conservative  of  organic  remains  than  even  the 
common  sand  of  our  shores,  by  a  mixture  of  the  red  oxide  of 
iron.  The  older  fossils,  therefore,  like  the  mummies  of 
Egypt,  can  be  described  well  nigh  as  minutely  as  the  exist- 
ences of  the  present  creation ;  the  newer,  like  the  compara- 
tively modern  remains  of  our  churchyards,  exist,  except  in  a 
few  rare  cases,  as  mere  fragments,  and  demand  powers  such 
as  those  of  a  Cuvier  or  an  Agassiz  to  restore  them  to  their 
original  combinations.  But  cases,  though  few  and  rare,  do 
occur  in  which,  through  some  favorable  accident  con- 
nected with  the  death  or  sepulture  of  some  individual  exist- 
ence of  the  period,  its  remains  have  been  preserved  almost 
entire  ;  and  one  such  specimen  serves  to  throw  light  on  whole 
heaps  of  the  broken  remains  of  its  contemporaries.  The 
single  elephant,  preserved  in  an  iceberg  beside  the  Arctic 
Ocean,  illustrated  the  peculiarities  of  the  numerous  extinct 
family  to  which  it  belonged,  whose  bones  and  huge  tusks 
whiten  the  wastes  of  Siberia.  The  human  body  found  in  an 
Irish  bog,  with  the  ancient  sandals  of  the  country  still  at- 
tached to  its  feet  by  thongs,  and  clothed  in  a  garment  of 
coarse  hair,  gave  evidence  that  bore  generally  on  the  degree  of 
civilization  attained  by  the  inhabitants  of  an  entire  district  in 
a  remote  age.  In  all  such  instances,  the  character  and  ap- 
pearance of  the  individual  bear  on  those  of  the  tribe.  In  at- 
tempting to  describe  the  organisms  of  the  Lower  Old  Red 
Sandstone,  where  the  fossils  lie  as  thickly  in  some  localities  as 
herrings  on  our  coasts  in  the  fishing  season,  I  felt  as  if  I  had 
whole  tribes  before  me.     In  describing  the  fossils  of  the 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


153 


Upper  Old  Red  Sandstone,  I  shall  have  to  draw  mostly  from 
single  specimens.  But  the  evidence  may  be  equally  sound 
so  far  as  it  goes. 

The  difference  between  the  superior  and  inferior  groups 
of  the  system  which  first  strikes  an  observer,  is  a  difference 
in  the  size  of  the  fossils  of  which  these  groups  are  composed. 
The  characteristic  organisms  of  the  Upper  Old  Red  Sand- 
stone are  of  much  greater  bulk  than  those  of  the  Lower, 
which  seem  to  have  been  characterized  by  a  mediocrity  of  size 
throughout  the  entire  extent  of  the  formation.  The  largest 
ichthyolites  of  the  group  do  not  seem  to  have  much  exceeded 
two  feet  or  two  feet  and  a  half  in  length  ;  its  smaller  average 
from  an  inch  to  three  inches.  A  jaw  in  the  possession  of  Dr. 
Traill  — that  of  an  Orkney  species  of  Blatygnathus,  and  by 
much  the  largest  in  his  collection  —  does  not  exceed  in  bulk 
the  jaw  of  a  full-grown  coal-fish  or  cod  ;  his  largest  Coccosteus 
must  have  been  a  considerably  smaller  fish  than  an  ordinary- 
sized  turbot ;  the  largest  ichthyolite  found  by  the  writer  was 
a  Diplopterus,  of,  however,  smaller  dimensions  than  the  ich- 
thyolite to  which  the  jaw  in  the  possession  of  Dr.  Traill  must 
have  belonged ;  the  remains  of  another  Diphpterus  from 
Gamrie,  the  most  massy  yet  discovered  in  that  locality,  seem 
to  have  composed  the  upper  parts  of  an  individual  about  two 
feet  and  a  half  in  length.  The  fish,  in  short,  of  the  lower 
ocean  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  —  and  I  can  speak  of  it 
throughout  an  area  which  comprises  Orkney  and  Inverness, 
Cromarty,  and  Gamrie,  and  which  must  have  included  about 
ten  thousand  square  miles  —  ranged  in  size  between  the 
stickleback  and  the  cod  ;  whereas  some  of  the  fish  of  its 
upper  ocean  were  covered  by  scales  as  large  as  oyster-shells, 
and  armed  with  teeth  that  rivalled  in  bulk  those  of  the  croco- 
dile.   They  must  have  been  fish  on  an  immensely  larger 


154 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


scale  than  those  with  which  the  system  began.  There  have 
been  scales  of  the  HoloptycJiius  found  in  Clashbennie  which 
measure  three  inches  in  length  by  two  and  a  half  in  breadth, 
and  a  full  eighth  part  of  an  inch  in  thickness.  There  occur 
occipital  plates  of  fishes  in  the  same  formation  in  Moray,  a 
full  foot  in  length  by  half  a  foot  in  breadth.  The  fragment 
of  a  tooth  still  attached  to  a  piece  of  the  jaw,  found  in  the 
sandstone  cliffs  that  overhang  the  Findhorn,  measures  an  inch 
in  diameter  at  the  base.  A  second  tooth  of  the  same  forma- 
tion, of  a  still  larger  size,  disinterred  by  Mr.  Patrick  Duff 
from  out  the  conglomerates  of  the  Scat-Craig,  near  Elgin, 
and  now  in  his  possession,  measures  two  inches  in  length  by 
rather  more  than  an  inch  in  diameter.  (See  Plate  X.,  fig.  4.) 
There  occasionally  turn  up  in  the  sandstones  of  Perthshire 
ichthyodorulites  that  in  bulk  and  appearance  resemble  the 
teeth  of  a  harrow  rounded  at  the  edges  by  a  few  months'  wear, 
and  which  must  have  been  attached  to  fins  not  inferior  in 
general  bulk  to  the  dorsal  fin  of  an  ordinary-sized  porpoise. 
In  short,  the  remains  of  a  Patagonian  burying-ground  would 
scarcely  contrast  more  strongly  with  the  remains  of  that  bat- 
tle-field described  by  Addison,  in  which  the  pygmies  were  an- 
nihilated by  the  cranes,  than  the  organisms  of  the  upper 
formation  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  contrast  with  those  of 
the  lower.* 

Of  this  upper  formation  the  most  characteristic  and  most 
abundant  ichthyolite,  as  has  been  already  said,  is  the  Holop- 


*  I  have  permitted  this  paragraph  to  remain  as  originally  written, 
thongh  the  comparatively  recent  discovery  of  a  gigantic  Hobptychius  (?) 
in  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone  of  Thurso,  by  Mr.  Robert  Dick  of 
that  place,  (see  introductory  note,)  bears  shrewdly  against  its  general 
line  of  statement.    But  it  will,  at  least,  serve  to  show  how  large  an 


PLATE  A' . 


GpTixdasFpis  J.ijJIn  Agetss 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


155 


tycJiius.  The  large  scales  and  plates,  and  the  huge  teeth, 
belong  to  this  genus.  It  was  first  introduced  to  the  notice 
of  geologists  in  a  paper  read  before  the  Wernerian  Society 
in  May,  1830,  by  Professor  Fleming,  and  published  by  him  in 
the  February  of  the  following  year,  in  Cheek's  Edinburgh 
Journal.  Only  detached  scales  and  the  fragment  of  a  tooth 
had  as  yet  been  found  ;  and  these  he  minutely  described  as 
such,  without  venturing  to  hazard  a  conjecture  regarding  the 
character  or  family  of  the  animal  to  which  they  had  belonged. 
They  were  submitted  some  years  after  to  Agassiz,  by  whom 
they  were  referred,  though  not  without  considerable  hesita- 
tion, to  the  genus  Gyrolepis ;  and  the  doubts  of  both  natural- 
ists serve  to  show  how  very  uncertain  a  guide  mere  analogy 
proves  to  even  men  of  the  first  order,  when  brought  to  bear  on 
organisms  of  so  strange  a  type  as  the  ichthyolites  of  the  Old 
Red  Sandstone.  At  this  stage,  however,  an  almost  entire 
specimen  of  the  creature  was  discovered  in  the  sandstones  of 
Ciashbennie,  by  the  Rev.  James  Noble,  of  St.  Madoes,  a  gen- 
tleman who,  by  devoting  his  leisure  hours  to  Geology,  has 
extended  the  knowledge  of  this  upper  formation,  and  whose 
name  has  been  attached  by  Agassiz  to  its  characteristic  fossil, 
now  designated  the  Holoptychius  nobilissimus.  His  speci- 
men at  once  decided  that  the  creature  had  been  no  Gyrolepis, 
but  the  representative  of  a  new  genus  not  less  strangely 
organized,  and  quite  as  unlike  the  existences  of  the  present 
times  as  any  existence  of  all  the  past.    So  marked  are  the 


amount  of  negative  evidence  may  be  dissipated  by  a  single  positive 
fact,  and  to  inculcate  on  the  geologist  the  necessity  of  cautious  induc- 
tion. An  individual  Holoptychius  of  Thurso  must  have  been  at  least 
thrice  the  size  of  the  Holoptychius  of  the  Upper  Old  Red  formation, 
as  exhibited  in  the  specimen  of  Mr.  Noble,  of  St.  Madoes. 


156 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


peculiarities  of  the  Holoptycliius,  that  they  strike  the  com- 
monest observer. 

The  scales-are  very  characteristic.  They  are  massy  ellipti- 
cal plates,  scarcely  less  bulky  in  proportion  to  their  extent  of 
surface  than  our  smaller  copper  coin,  composed  internally  of 
bone,  and  externally  of  enamel,  and  presenting  on  the  one 
side  a  porous  structure,  and  on  the  other,  when  well  pre- 
served, a  bright,  glossy  surface.  The  upper,  or  glossy  side, 
is  the  more  characteristic  of  the  two.  I  have  placed  one  of 
them  before  me.  Imagine  an  elliptical  ivory  counter,  an  inch 
and  a  half  in  length  by  an  inch  in  breadth,  and  nearly  an 
eighth  part  of  an  inch  in  thickness,  the  larger  diameter 
forming  a  line  which,  if  extended,  would  pass  longitudinally 
from  head  to  tail  through  the  animal  which  the  scale  covered. 
On  the  upper  or  anterior  margin  of  this  elliptical  counter, 
imagine  a  smooth  selvedge  or  border  three  eighth  parts  of  an 
inch  in  breadth.  Beneath  this  border  there  is  an  inner  border 
of  detached  tubercles,  and  beneath  the  tubercles  large  undu- 
lating furrows,  which  stretch  longitudinally  towards  the  lower 
end  of  the  ellipsis.  Some  of  these  waved  furrows  run  un- 
broken and  separate  to  the  bottom,  some  merge  into  their 
neighboring  furrows  at  acute  angles,  some  branch  out  and 
again  unite,  like  streams  which  enclose  islands,  and  some 
break  into  chains  of  detached  tubercles.  (See  Plate  X.,  fig.  3.) 
No  two  scales  exactly  resemble  one  another  in  the  minuter 
peculiarities  of  their  sculpture,  if  1  may  so  speak,  just  as  no 
two  pieces  of  lake  or  sea  may  be  roughened  after  exactly 
the  same  pattern  during  a  gale;  and  yet  in  general  appear- 
ance they  are  all  wonderfully  alike.  Their  style  of  sculpture 
is  the  same  —  a  style  which  has  sometimes  reminded  me  of 
the  Runic  knots  of  our  ancient  north  country  obelisks.  Such 
was  the  scale  of  the  creature.    The  head,  which  was  small, 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


157 


compared  with  the  size  of  the  body,  was  covered  with  bony 
plates,  roughened  after  a  pattern  somewhat  different  from 
that  of  the  scales,  being  tubercled  rather  than  ridged ;  but 
the  tubercles  present  a  confluent  appearance,  just  as  chains 
of  hills  may  be  described  as  confluent,  the  base  of  one  hill 
running  into  the  base  of  another.  The  operculum  seems  to 
have  been  covered  by  one  entire  plate  —  a  peculiarity  ob- 
servable, as  has  been  remarked,  among  some  of  the  ichthy- 
olites  of  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone,  such  as  the  Diplop- 
terus,  Dipterus,  and  Osteolepis.  And  it,  too,  has  its  fields  of 
tubercles,  and  its  smooth  marginal  selvedge,  or  border,  on 
which  the  lower  edges  of  the  upper  occipital  plates  seem  to 
have  rested,  just  as,  in  the  roof  of  a  slated  building,  part  of 
the  lower  tier  of  slates  is  overtopped  and  covered  by  the  tier 
above.  The  scales  towards  the  tail  suddenly  diminish  at 
the  ventral  fins  to  about  one  fourth  the  size  of  those  on  the 
upper  part  of  the  body ;  the  fins  themselves  are  covered  at 
their  bases,  which  seem  to  have  been  thick  and  fleshy  like 
the  base  of  the  pectoral  fin  in  the  cod  or  haddock,  with  scales 
still  more  minute  ;  and  from  the  scaly  base  the  rays  diverge 
like  the  radii  of  a  circle,  and  terminate  in  a  semicircular  out- 
line. The  ventrals  are  placed  nearer  the  tail,  says  Agassiz, 
than  in  any  other  ganoid  fish.    (See  Plate  X.,  fig.  2.) 

But  no  such  description  can  communicate  an  adequate  con- 
ception to  the  reader  of  the  strikingly  picturesque  appearance 
of  the  Holopty chius,  as  shown  in  Mr.  Noble's  splendid  speci- 
men. There  is  a  general  massiveness  about  the  separate 
portions  of  the  creature,  that  imparts  ideas  of  the  gigantic, 
independently  of  its  bulk  as  a  whole  ;  just  as  a  building  of 
moderate  size,  when  composed  of  very  ponderous  stones,  has 
a  more  imposing  effect  than  much  larger  buildings  in  which 
the  stones  are  smaller.  The  body  measures  a  foot  across,  by 
14 


158  THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 

two  feet  and  a  half  in  length,  exclusive  of  the  tail,  which  is 
wanting ;  but  the  armor  in  which  it  is  cased  might  have 
served  a  crocodile  or  alligator  of  five  times  the  size.  It  lies 
on  its  back,  on  a  mass  of  red  sandstone  ;  and  the  scales  and 
plates  still  retain  their  bony  color,  slightly  tinged  with  red, 
like  the  skeleton  of  some  animal  that  had  lain  for  years  in  a 
bed  of  ferruginous  marl  or  clay.  The  outline  of  the  occipi- 
tal portion  of  the  specimen  forms  a  low  Gothic  arch,  of  an 
intermediate  style  between  the  round  Saxon  and  the  pointed 
Norman.  This  arch  is  filled  by  two  angular,  pane-like  plates, 
separated  by  a  vertical  line,  that  represents,  if  I  may  use  the 
figure,  the-dividing  astragal  of  the  window  ;  and  the  under 
jaw,  with  its  two  sweeping  arcs,  or  branches,  constitutes  the 
frame.  All  of  the  head  which  appears  is  that  under  portion 
of  it  which  extends  from  the  upper  part  of  the  belly  to  the 
snout.  The  belly  itself  is  thickly  covered  by  huge  carved 
scales,  that,  from  their  massiveness  and  regular  arrangement, 
remind  one  of  the  flags  of  an  ancient  stone  roof.  The  carv- 
ing varies,  as  they  descend  towards  the  tail,  being  more  in 
the  ridged  style  below,  and  more  in  the  tubercled  style  above. 
So  fairly  does  the  creature  lie  on  its  back,  that  the  ventral 
fins  have  fallen  equally,  one  on  each  side,  and,  from  their 
semicircular  form,  remind  one  of  the  two  pouch  holes  in  a 
lady's  apron,  with  their  laced  flaps.  The  entire  outline  of 
the  fossil  is  that  of  an  elongated  ellipsis,  or  rather  spindle,  a 
little  drawn  out  towards  the  caudal  extremity.  The  places 
of  all  the  fins  are  not  indicated,  but,  as  shown  by  other  speci- 
mens, they  seem  to  have  been  crowded  together  towards  the 
lower  extremity,  like  those  of  the  Glyptolepis,  an  ichthyolite 
which,  in  more  than  one  respect,  the  Holoptychius  must  have 
resembled,  and  which,  from  this  peculiarity,  presents  a  brush- 
like appearance  —  the  head  and  shoulders  representing  the 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


159 


handle,  and  the  large  and  thickly  clustered  fins  the  spreading 
bristles.* 

Some  of  the  occipital  bones  of  the  Holoptychius  are  very- 
curious  and  very  puzzling.  There  are  pieces  rounded  at  one 
of  the  ends,  somewhat  in  the  manner  of  the  neck  joints  of 
our  better  known  quadrupeds,  and  which  have  been  mistaken 
for  vertebrae ;  but  which  present  evidently,  at  the  apparent 
joint,  the  enamel  peculiar  to  the  outer  surface  of  all  the  plates 
and  scales  of  the  creature,  and  which  belonged,  it  is  proba- 
ble, to  the  snout.  There  are  saddle-shaped  bones,  too,  which 
have  been  regarded  as  the  central  occipital  plates  of  a  new 
species  of  Coccosteus,  but  whose  style  of  confluent  tubercle 
belongs  evidently  to  the  Holoptychius.  The  jaws  are  exceed- 
ingly curious.  They  are  composed  of  as  solid  bone  as  we 
usually  find  in  the  jaws  of  mammalia ;  and  the  outer  surface, 
which  is  covered  in  animals  of  commoner  structure  with  por- 
tions of  the  facial  integuments,  we  find  polished  and  japanned, 
and  fretted  into  tubercles.  The  jaws  of  the  creature,  like 
those  of  the  Osleolepis  of  the  lower  formation,  were  naked 
jaws  ;  it  is,  indeed,  more  than  probable  that  all  its  real  bones 
were  so,  and  that  the  internal  skeleton  was  cartilaginous.  A  row 
of  thickly-set,  pointed  teeth  ran  along  the  japanned  edges  of 
the  mouth  —  what,  in  fish  of  the  ordinary  construction,  would 
be  the  lips ;  and  inside  this  row  there  was  a  second  and 
widely-set  row  of  at  least  twenty  times  the  bulk  of  the  other, 
and  which  stood  up  over  and  beyond  it,  like  spires  in  a  city 
over  the  rows  of  lower  buildings  in  front.  A  nearly  similar 
disposition  of  teeth  seems  also  to  have  characterized  the 


*  There  are  now  six  species  of  Holoptychius  enumerated  —  H.  An- 
dersuni,  H.  Flemingii,  H.  giganteus,  H.  Murchisoni,  H.  nobilissimus, 
and  H.  Omaliusii. 


160 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


Holoptycliius  of  the  Coal  Measures,  but  the  contrast  in  size 
was  somewhat  less  marked.  One  of  the  most  singularly- 
formed  bones  of  the  formation  will  be  found,  I  doubt  not, 
when  perfect  specimens  of  the  upper  part  of  the  creature 
shall  be  procured,  to  have  belonged  to  the  Holoptycliius.  It 
is  a  huge  ichthyodorulite,  formed,  box-like,  of  four  nearly 
rectangular  planes,  terminating  in  a  point,  and  ornamented 
on  two  of  the  sides  by  what,  in  a  work  of  art,  the  reader 
would  at  once  term  a  species  of  Chinese  fretwork.  Along 
the  centre  there  runs  a  line  of  lozenges,  slightly  truncated 
where  they  unite,  just  as,  in  plants  that  exhibit  the  cellular 
texture,  the  lozenge-shaped  cells  may  be  said  to  be  truncated. 
At  the  sides  of  the  central  line,  there  run  lines  of  half  loz- 
enges, which  occupy  the  space  to  the  edges.  Each  lozenge 
is  marked  by  lines  parallel  to  the  lines  which  describe  it, 
somewhat  in  the  manner  of  the  plates  of  the  tortoise.  The 
centre  of  each  is  thickly  tubercled  ;  and  what  seems  to  have 
been  the  anterior  plane  of  the  ichthyodorulite  is  thickly  tuber- 
cled also,  both  in  the  style  of  the  occipital  plates  and  jaws  of 
the  Holoptycliius.  This  curious  bone,  which  seems  to  have 
been  either  hollow  inside,  or,  what  is  more  probable,  filled 
with  cartilage,  measures,  in  some  of  the  larger  specimens, 
an  inch  and  a  half  across  at  the  base  on  its  broader  planes, 
and  rather  more  than  half  an  inch  on  its  two  narrower 
ones.* 

Geologists  have  still  a  great  deal  to  learn  regarding  the 
contemporaries  of  the  Holoptycliius  nohilissimus.  The 
lower  portion  of  that  upper  formation  to  which  it  more 


*  This  bone  has  been  since  assigned  by  Agassiz  to  a  new  genus,  of 
which  no  other  fragments  have  yet  been  found,  but  which  has  been 
named  provisionally  Placothorax  paradoxus. 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


161 


especially  belongs  —  the  portion  represented  in  our  second 
pyramid  by  the  conglomerate  and  sandstone  bar  —  though 
unfavorable  to  the  preservation  of  animal  remains,  represents 
assuredly  no  barren  period.  It  has  been  found  to  contain 
bodies  apparently  organic,  that  vary  in  shape  like  the  sponges 
of  our  existing  seas,  which  in  general  appearance  they  some- 
what resemble,  but  whose  class,  and  even  kingdom,  are  yet 
to  fix.*     It  contains,  besides,  in  considerable  abundance, 


*  These  organisms,  if  in  reality  such,  are  at  once  very  curious  and 
very  puzzling.  They  occur  in  some  localities  in  great  abundance.  A 
piece  of  Clashbennie  flagstone,  somewhat  more  than  two  feet  in  length, 
by  fifteen  inches  in  breadth,  kindly  sent  me  for  examination  by  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Noble,  of  St.  Madoes,  bears  no  fewer  than  twelve  of  them  on  its 
upper  surface,  and  presents  the  appearance  of  a  piece  of  rude  sculpture, 
not  very  unlike  those  we  sometimes  see  in  country  churchyards,  on 
the  tombstones  of  the  times  of  the  Revolution.  All  the  twelve  vary 
in  appearance.  Some  of  them  are  of  a  pear  shape  —  some  are  irreg- 
ularly oval  —  some  resemble  short  cuts  of  the  bole  of  a  tree  —  some 
are  spread  out  like  ancient  manuscripts,  partially  unrolled — one  of 
the  number  seems  a  huge,  though  not  over  neatly  formed  acorn,  an 
apprentice  mason's  first  attempt  —  the  others  are  of  a  shape  so  irreg- 
ular as  to  set  comparison  and  description  at  defiance.  They  almost 
all  agree,  however,  when  cut  transversely,  in  presenting  flat,  elliptical 
arcs  as  their  sectional  lines  —  in  having  an  upper  surface  compara- 
tively smooth,  and  an  under  surface  nearly  parallel  to  it,  thickly  cor- 
rugated —  and  in  being  all  coated  with  a  greasy,  shining  clay,  of  a 
deeper  red  than  the  surrounding  stone.  I  was  perhaps  rather  more 
confident  of  their  organic  character  after  I  had  examined  a  few  mere- 
ly detached  specimens,  than  now  that  I  have  seen  a  dozen  of  them 
together.  It  seems  at  least  a  circumstance  to  awaken  doubt,  that 
though  they  occur  in  various  positions  on  the  slab  —  some  extending 
across  it,  some  lying  diagonally,  some  running  lengthwise  —  the  cor- 
rugations of  their  under  surfaces  should  run  lengthwise  in  all  —  fur- 
rowing them  in  every  possible  angle,  and  giving  evidence,  not  appar- 
14* 


162  THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 

though  in  a  state  of  very  imperfect  preservation,  scales  that 
differ  from  those  of  the  Holopty  chius,  and  from  one  another. 
One  of  these,  figured  and  described  by  Professor  Fleming  in 
Cheek's  Edinburgh  Journal,  bearing  on  its  upper  surface  a 
mark  like  a  St.  Andrew's  cross,  surrounded  by  tubercled  dot- 
tings,  and  closely  resembling  in  external  appearance  some 
of  the  scales  of  the  common  sturgeon,  "  may  be  referred 
with  some  probability,"  says  the  Professor,  "  to  an  extinct 
species  of  the  genus  Accipenser  *    The  deposit,  too,  abounds 


ently  to  the  influences  of  an  organic  law,  internal  to  each,  but  of 
the  operation  of  some  external  cause,  acting  on  the  whole  in  one 
direction. 

*  May  I  crave  the  attention  of  the  reader  to  a  brief  statement  of 
fact  ?  I  have  said  that  Professor  Fleming,  when  he  minutely  de- 
scribed the  scales  of  the  Holopty  chius,  hazarded  no  conjecture  regard- 
ing the  generic  character  of  the  creature  to  which  they  had  belonged ; 
he  merely  introduced  them  to  the  notice  of  the  public  as  the  scales 
of  some  "  vertebrated  animal,  probably  those  of  a  fish."  I  now  state 
that  he  described  the  scales  of  a  contemporary  ichthyolite  as  bearing, 
in  external  appearance,  a  "  close  resemblance  to  some  of  the  scales  of 
the  common  sturgeon."  It  has  been  asserted,  that  it  was  the  scales 
of  the  Holopty chius  which  he  thus  described,  "  referring  them  to  an 
extinct  species  of  the  genus  Accipenser and  the  assertion  has  been 
extensively  credited,  and  by  some  of  our  highest  geological  authori- 
ties. Agassiz  himself,  evidently  in  the  belief  that  the  professor  had 
fallen  into  a  palpable  error,  deems  it  necessary  to  prove  that  the 
Holopty  chius  could  have  borne  "no  relation  to  the  Accipenser  or  stur- 
geon." Mr.  Murchison,  in  his  Silurian  System,  refers  also  to  the  sup- 
posed mistake.  The  person  with  whom  the  misunderstanding  seems 
to  have  originated  is  the  Rev.  Dr.  Anderson,  of  Newburgh.  About 
a  twelvemonth  after  the  discovery  of  Professor  Fleming  in  the  sand- 
stones of  Drumdryan,  a  similar  discovery  was  made  in  the  sandstones 
of  Clashbennie  by  a  geologist  of  Perth,  who,  on  submitting  his  new 
found  scales  to  Dr.  Anderson,  concluded,  with  the  Doctor,  that  they 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


163 


in  teeth,  various  enough  in  their  forms  to  indicate  a  corre- 
sponding variety  of  families  and  genera  among  the  ichthyolites 
to  which  they  belonged.  Some  are  nearly  straight,  like  those 
of  the  Holoptychius  of  the  Coal  Measures  ;  some  are  bent, 
like  the  beak  of  a  hawk  or  eagle,  into  a  hook-form  ;  some 
incline  first  in  one  direction,  and  then  in  the  opposite  one, 


could  be  no  other  than  oyster  shells ;  though  eventually,  on  becoming 
acquainted  with  the  decision  of  Professor  Fleming  regarding  them, 
both  gentlemen  were  content  to  alter  their  opinion,  and  to  regard 
them  as  scales.  The  Professor,  in  his  paper  on  the  Old  Red  Sand- 
stone in  Cheek's  Journal,  referred  incidentally  to  the  oyster  shells  of 
Clashbennie  —  a  somewhat  delicate  subject  of  allusion  ;  and  in  Dr. 
Anderson's  paper  on  the  same  formation,  which  appeared  about  seven 
years  after,  in  the  New  Journal  of  Professor  Jameson,  the  geological 
world  was  told,  for  the  first  time,  that  Professor  Fleming  had  de- 
scribed a  scale  of  Clashbennie  similar  to  those  of  Drumdryan,  (i.  e., 
those  of  the  Holoptychius,)  as  bearing  a  "  close  resemblance  to  some 
of  the  scales  on  the  common  sturgeon,"  and  as  probably  referable  to 
some  "  extinct  species  of  the  genus  Accipenser."  Now,  Professor 
Fleming,  instead  of  stating  that  the  scales  were  at  all  similar,  had 
stated  very  pointedly  that  they  were  entirely  different ;  and  not  only 
had  he  described  them  as  different,  but  he  had  also  figured  them  as  dif- 
ferent, and  had  placed  the  figures  side  by  side,  that  the  difference 
might  be  the  better  seen.  To  the  paper  of  the  Professor,  which  con- 
tained this  statement,  and  to  which  these  figures  were  attached,  Dr. 
Anderson  referred,  as  "  read  before  the  Wernerian  Society  ;  "  —  he 
quoted  from  it  in  the  Professor's  words  —  he  drew  some  of  the  more 
important  facts  of  his  own  paper  from  it  —  in  his  late  Essay  on  the 
Geology  of  Fife  he  has  availed  himself  of  it  still  more  largely,  though 
with  no  acknowledgment;  it  has  constituted,  in  short,  by  far  the 
most  valuable  of  all  his  discoveries  in  connection  with  the  Old  Red 
Sandstone,  and  apparently  the  most  minutely  examined ;  and  yet,  so 
completely  did  he  fail  to  detect  Professor  Fleming's  carefully  drawn 
distinction  between  the  scales  of  the  Holoptychius  and  those  of  its  con- 
temporary, that  when  Agassiz,  misled  apparently  by  the  Doctor's  own 


164 


THE   OLD   RED  SANDSTONE. 


like  nails  that  have  been  drawn  out  of  a  board  by  the  car- 
penter at  two  several  wrenches,  and  bent  in  opposite  angles 
at  each  wrench  ;  some  are  bulky  and  squat,  some  long  and 
slender  ;  and  in  almost  all  the  varieties,  whether  curved  or 
straight,  squat  or  slim,  the  base  is  elegantly  striated  like  the 
flutings  -of  the  column.    In  the  splendid  specimen  found  in 


statement,  had  set  himself  to  show  that  the  scaly  giant  of  the  forma- 
tion could  have  been  no  sturgeon,  the  Doctor  had  the  passage  in 
which  the  naturalist  established  the  fact  transferred  into  a  Fife  news- 
paper, with,  of  course,  the  laudable  intention  of  preventing  the  Fife 
public  from  falling  into  the  absurd  mistake  of  Professor  Fleming. 
There  seems  to  be  something  rather  inexplicable  in  all  this  ;  but  there 
can  be  little  doubt  Dr.  Anderson  could  satisfactorily  explain  the 
whole  matter  without  once  referring  to  the  oyster  shells  of  Clashbennie. 
It  is  improbable  that  he  could  have  wished  or  intended  to  injure  the 
reputation  of  a  gentleman  to  whose  freely-imparted  instructions  he  is 
indebted  for  much  the  greater  portion  of  his  geological  skill  —  whose 
remarks,  written  and  spoken,  he  has  so  extensively  appropriated  in 
his  several  papers  and  essays  —  and  whose  character  is  known  far  be- 
yond the  limits  of  his  country,  for  untiring  research,  philosophic  dis- 
crimination, and  all  the  qualities  which  constitute  a  naturalist  of  the 
highest  order.  Dr.  Johnston,  of  Berwick,  in  his  History  of  British 
Zoophytes,  (a  work  of  an  eminently  scientific  character,)  justly  "  as- 
cribes to  the  labors  and  writings  "  of  Professor  Fleming  "  no  small 
share  in  diffusing  that  taste  for  Natural  History  which  is  now  abroad." 
And  as  an  interesting  corroboration  of  the  fact,  I  may  state,  that  Dr. 
Malcolmson,  of  Madras,  lately  found  an  elegant  Italian  translation  of 
Fleming's  Philosophy  of  Zoology,  high  in  repute  among  the  elite  of 
Rome.  Lest  it  should  be  supposed  I  do  Dr.  Anderson  injustice  in 
these  remarks,  I  subjoin  the  grounds  of  them  in  the  following  extracts 
from  professor  Fleming's  paper  in  Cheek's  Journal,  and  from  the  paper 
in  Jameson's  New  Edinburgh  Journal,  in  which  the  Doctor  purports  to 
give  a  digest  of  the  former,  without  once  referring,  however,  to  the 
periodical  in  which  it  is  to  be  found  :  — 

"In  the  summer  of  1827,"  says  Dr.  Fleming,  "  I  obtained  from 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


165 


the  sandstones  of  the  Findhorn,  the  tooth  is  still  attached  to  a 
portion  of  the  jaw,  and  shows,  from  the  nature  of  the 
attachment,  that  the  creature  to  which  it  belonged  must  have 
been  a  true  fish,  not  a  reptile.  The  same  peculiarity  is  ob- 
servable in  two  other  very  fine  specimens  in  the  collection  of 
Mr.  Patrick  Duff,  of  Elgin.    Both  in  saurians  and  in  toothed 


Drumdryan  quarry,  to  the  south  of  Cupar,  situate  in  the  higher  strata 
of  yellow  sandstone,  certain  organisms,  which  I  readily  referred  to 
the  scales  of  vertebrated  animals,  probably  those  of  a  fish.  The 
largest  (see  Plate  II.,  fig.  1,  1  figure  of  a  scale  of  the  Holoptychius  ')  was 
one  inch  and  one  tenth  in  length,  about  one  inch  and  two  tenths  in 
breadth,  and  not  exceeding  the  fiftieth  of  an  inch  in  thickness.  The 
part  which,  when  in  its  natural  position,  had  been  imbedded  in  the 
cuticle,  is  comparatively  smooth,  exhibiting,  however,  in  a  very  dis- 
tinct manner,  the  scmicircularly  parallel  layers  of  growth  with  obso- 
lete diverging  stria?,  giving  to  the  surface,  when  under  a  lens,  a  reticu- 
lated aspect.  The  part  naturally  exposed  is  marked  with  longitudinal, 
waved,  rounded,  anastomosing  ridges,  which  are  smooth  and  glossy. 
The  whole  of  the  inside  of  the  scale  is  smooth,  though  exhibiting 
with  tolerable  distinctness  the  layers  of  growth.  The  form  and 
structure  of  the  object  indicated  plainly  enough  that  it  had  been  a 
scale,  a  conclusion  confirmed  by  the  detection  of  the  phosphate  of 
lime  in  its  composition.  At  this  period  I  inserted  a  short  notice  of  the 
occurrence  of  these  scales  in  our  provincial  newspaper,  the  Fife  Her- 
aid,  for  the  purpose  of  attracting  the  attention  of  the  workmen  and 
others  in  the  neighborhood,  in  order  to  secure  the  preservation  of  any 
other  specimens  which  might  occur. 

"Nearly  a  year  after  these  scales  had  been  discovered,  not  only  in 
the  upper,  but  even  in  some  of  the  lower  beds  of  the  Yellow  Sand- 
stone, I  was  informed  that  oyster  shells  had  been  found  in  a  quarry  in 
the  Old  Red  Sandstone  at  Clashbennie,  near  Errol,  in  Perthshire, 
and  that  specimens  were  in  the  possession  of  a  gentleman  in  Perth. 
Interested  in  the  intelligence,  I  lost  no  time  in  visiting  Perth,  and  was 
gratified  to  find  that  the  supposed  oyster  shells  were,  in  fact,  similar 
to  those  which  I  had  ascertained  to  occur  in  a  higher  part  of  the  series. 


166 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


cetacese,  such  as  the  porpoise,  the  teeth  are  inserted  in  sockets. 
In  the  ichthyolites  of  this  formation,  so  far  as  these  are  illus- 
trated by  its  better  specimens,  the  teeth,  as  in  existing  fish, 
are  merely  placed  flat  upon  the  jaw,  or  in  shallow  pits,  which 
seem  almost  to  indicate  that  the  contrivance  of  sockets  might 
be  afterwards  resorted  to.    Immediately  over  the  sandstone 


The  scales  were,  however,  of  a  larger  size,  some  of  them  exceeding 
three  inches  in  length,  and  one  eighth  of  an  inch  in  thickness.  Upon 
my  visit  to  the  quarry,  I  found  the  scales,  as  in  the  Yellow  Sand- 
stone, most  abundant  in  those  parts  of  the  rock  which  exhibited  a 
brecciated  aspect.  Many  patches  a  foot  in  length,  full  of  scales, 
have  occurred  ;  but  as  yet  no  entire  impression  of  a  fish  has  been 
obtained. 

"Another  scale,  differing  from  those  already  noticed,  (see 
Plate  II.,  fig.  3,  1  figure  of  an  oblong  tubercle  plate  traversed  diagonally  by 
lines,  wkichf  bisecting  one  another  a  little  above  the  centre,  resembles  a  St. 
Andrew  s  cross,  and  marked  on  the  edges  by  faintly  radiating  lines,''')  is 
about  an  inch  and  a  quarter  in  length,  and  an  inch  in  breadth.  In 
external  appearance  it  bears  a  very  close  resemblance  to  some  of  the 
scales  on  the  common  sturgeon,  and  may,  with  some  probability,  be 
referred  to  an  extinct  species  of  the  genus  Accipemer."  —  {Cheek* s 
Edinburgh  Journal,  Feb.  1831,  p.  85.) 

"Dr.  Fleming,  in  1830,"  says  Dr.  Anderson,  "read  before  the 
Wernerian  Society  a  notice  *  on  the  occurrence  of  scales  of  vertebrated 
animals  in  the  Old  Hed  Sandstone  of  Fifeshire.'  These  organisms, 
as  described  by  him,  occurred  in  the  Yellow  Sandstone  of  Drum- 
dryan   and   the  Gray  Sandstone  of  Parkhill.     From  the  former 

locality  scales  of  a  fish  were  obtained  

The  same  paper  (Professor  Fleming's)  contains  a  notice  of  similar 
scales  in  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  of  Clashbennie,  near  Errol,  in 
Perthshire,  one  of  which  is  described  as  bearing  *  a  very  close  re- 
semblance to  some  of  the  scales  on  the  common  sturgeon,  and  may 
with  some  probability  be  referred  to  an  extinct  species  of  the  genus 
Accipenser. —  {Professor  Jameson's  Edin.  New  Phil.  Journal,  Oct. 
1837,  p.  138.) 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


167 


and  conglomerate  belt  in  which  these  organisms  occur,  there 
rests,  as  has  been  said,  a  band  of  limestone,  and  over  the 
limestone  a  thick  bed  of  yellow  sandstone,  in  which  the  sys- 
tem terminates,  and  which  is  overlaid  in  turn  by  the  lower 
beds  of  the  carboniferous  group. 

The  limestone  band  is  unfossiliferous,  and  resembling,  in 
mineralogical  character,  the  Cornstones  of  England  and 
Wales,  it  has  been  described  as  the  Cornstone  of  Scotland  ; 
but  the  fact  merely  furnishes  one  illustration  of  many,  of  the 
inadequacy  of  a  mineralogical  nomenclature  for  the  purposes 
of  the  geologist.  In  the  neighborhood  of  Cromarty  the  lower 
formation  abounds  in  beds  of  nodular  limestone,  identical  in 
appearance  with  the  Cornstone ;  —  in  England  similar  beds 
occur  so  abundantly  in  the  middle  formation,  that  it  derives 
its  name  from  them  ;  —  in  Fife  they  occur  in  the  upper 
formation  exclusively.  Thus  the  formation  of  the  Coccosteus 
and  Dipterus  is  a  cornstone  formation  in  the  first  locality  ; 
that  of  the  Cephalaspis  and  the  gigantic  lobster  in  the  second ; 
that  of  the  Holoplychius  nobilissimus  in  the  third.  We 
have  but  to  vary  our  field  of  observation  to  find  all  the  for- 
mations of  the  system  Cornstone  formations  in  turn.  The 
limestone  band  of  the  upper  member  presents  exactly  similar 
appearances  in  Moray  as  in  Fife.  It  is  in  both  of  a  yellowish 
green  or  gray  color,  and  a  concretionary  structure,  consisting 
of  softer  and  harder  portions,  that  yield  so  unequally  to  the 
weather,  as  to  exhibit  in  exposed  cliffs  and  boulders  a  brecci- 
ated  aspect,  as  if  it  had  been  a  mechanical,  not  a  chemical 
deposit ;  though  its  origin  must  unquestionably  have  been 
chemical.  It  contains  minute  crystals  of  galena,  and  abounds 
in  masses  of  a  cherty,  siliceous  substance  that  strikes 
fire  with  steel,  and  which,  from  the  manner  in  which  they 
are  incorporated  with  the  rock,  show  that  they  must  have  been 


168 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


formed  along  with  it.  From  this  circumstance,  and  from  the 
general  resemblance  it  bears  to  the  deposits  of  the  thermal 
waters  of  volcanic  districts  which  precipitate  siliceous  mixed 
with  calcareous  matter,  it  has  been  suggested,  and  by  no  mean 
authority,  that  it  must  have  derived  its  origin  from  hot  springs. 
The  bed  is  several  yards  in  thickness  ;  and  as  it  appears  both 
in  Moray  and  in  Fife,  in  localities  at  least  a  hundred  and 
twenty  miles  apart,  it  must  have  been  formed,  if  formed  at 
all,  in  this  manner,  at  a  period  when  the  volcanic  agencies 
were  in  a  state  of  activity  at  no  great  distance  from  the 
surface. 

The  upper  belt  of  yellow  stone,  the  terminal  layer  of  the 
pyramid,  is  fossiliferous  both  in  Moray  and  Fife  —  more 
richly  so  in  the  latter  county  than  even  the  conglomerate  belt 
that  underlies  it,  and  its  organisms  are  better  preserved.  It 
was  in  this  upper  layer,  in  Drumdryan  quarry,  to  the  south 
of  Cupar,  that  Professor  Fleming  found  the  first- discovered 
scales  of  the  Holoptychius.  At  Dura  Den,  in  the  same 
neighborhood,  a  singularly  rich  deposit  of  animal  remains 
was  laid  open  a  few  years  ago,  by  some  workmen,  when  em- 
ployed in  excavating  a  water-course  for  a  mill.  The  organ- 
isms lay  crowded  together,  a  single  slab  containing  no  fewer 
than  thirty  specimens,  and  all  in  a  singularly  perfect  state  of 
preservation.  The  whole  space  excavated  did  not  exceed  forty 
square  yards  in  extent,  and  yet  in  these  forty  yards  there 
were  found  several  genera  of  fishes  new  to  Geology,  and  not 
yet  figured  nor  described  —  a  conclusive  proof  in  itself  that 
we  have  still  very  much  to  learn  regarding  the  fossils  of  the 
Old  Red  Sandstone.  By  much  the  greater  portion  of  the 
remains  disinterred  on  this  occasion  were  preserved  by  a  lady 
in  the  neighborhood  ;  and  the  news  of  the  discovery  spread- 
ing over  the  district,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Anderson,  of  Newburgh, 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


169 


was  fortunately  led  to  discover  them  anew  in  her  possession. 
The  most  abundant  organism  of  the  group  was  a  variety  of 
Pterichthys  —  the  sixth  species  of  this  very  curious  genus  now 
discovered  in  the  Old  Red  Sandstones  of  Scotland  ;  and  as  the 
Doctor  had  been  lucky  enough  to  find  out  for  himself,  some 
years  before,  that  the  scales  of  the  Holoplychius  were  oyster 
shells,  he  now  ascertained,  with  quite  as  little  assistance  from 
without,  that  the  Pterichthys  must  have  been  surely  a  huge 
beetle.  As  a  beetle,  therefore,  he  figured  and  described  it  in 
the  pages  of  a  Glasgow  topographical  publication  —  Fife  Il- 
lustrated. True,  the  characteristic  elytra  were  wanting, 
and  some  six  or  seven  tubercle  plates  substituted  in  their 
room  ;  nor  could  the  artist,  with  all  his  skill,  supply  the  crea- 
ture with  more  than  two  legs  ;  but  ingenuity  did  much  for  it, 
notwithstanding ;  and  by  lengthening  the  snout,  insect-like, 
into  a  point  —  by  projecting  an  eye,  insect-like,  on  what  had 
mysteriously  grown  into  a  head  —  by  rounding  the  body,  in- 
sect-like, until  it  exactly  resembled  that  of  the  large  u  twilight 
shard  "  —  by  exaggerating  the  tubercles  seen  in  profile  on  the 
paddles  until  they  stretched  out,  insect-like,  into  bristles  — 
and  by  carefully  sinking  the  tail,  which  was  not  insect-like,  and 
for  which  no  possible  use  could  be  discovered  at  the  time  — 
the  Doctor  succeeded  in  making  the  Pterichthys  of  Dura  Den 
a  very  respectable  beetle  indeed.  In  a  later  publication,  an 
Essay  on  the  Geology  of  Fifeshire,  which  appeared  in  Sep- 
tember last  in  the  Quarterly  Journal  of  Agriculture,  he  states, 
after  referring  to  his  former  description,  that  among  the  higher 
geological  authorities  some  were  disposed  to  regard  the  crea- 
ture as  an  extinct  crustaceous  animal,  and  some  as  belonging 
to  a  tribe  closely  allied  to  the  Chclonia.  Agassiz,  as  the 
writer  of  these  chapters  ventured  some  months  ago  to  pre- 
dict, has  since  pronounced  it  a  fish  —  a  Pterichthys  specifically 
15 


170 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


different  from  the  five  varieties  of  this  ichthyolite  which  occur 
in  the  lower  formation  of  the  system,  but  generically  the 
same.  I  very  lately  enjoyed  the  pleasure  of  examining  the 
lona  fide  ichthyolite  itself — one  of  the  specimens  of  Dura 
Den,  and  apparently  one  of  the  more  entire  —  in  the  collec- 
tion of  Professor  Fleming.  Its  character  as  a  Pterichthys  I 
found  very  obvious ;  but  neither  the  Professor  nor  myself 
was  ingenious  enough  to  discover  in  it  any  trace  of  the  beetle 
of  Dr.  Anderson.* 

Is  it  not  interesting  to  find  this  very  curious  genus  in  both 
the  lowest  and  highest  fossiliferous  beds  of  the  system,  and 
constituting,  like  the  Trilolite  genus  of  the  Silurian  group, 
its  most  characteristic  organism  ?  The  Trilobite  has  a  wide 
geological  range,  extending  from  the  upper  Cambrian  rocks 
to  the  upper  Coal  Measures.  But  though  the  range  of  the 
genus  is  wide,  that  of  every  individual  species  of  which  it 
consists  is  very  limited.  The  Trilohites  of  the  upper  Coal 
Measures  differ  from  those  of  the  Mountain  Limestone ; 


*  This  interesting  ichthyolite  has  since  been  regarded  by  Agassiz 
as  the  representative  of  a  distinct  genus,  to  which  he  gives  the  name 
Pamphractus,  As  exhibited  in  his  restoration,  however,  it  seems  to 
differ  little,  if  at  all,  (if  I  may  venture  the  suggestion,)  from  a  Pter- 
ichthys viewed  on  the  upper  side.  In  Agassiz' s  beautiful  restoration 
of  Pterichthys,  and  his  accompanying  prints  of  the  fossils  illustrative 
of  that  genus,  it  is,  with  but  one  doubtful  exception,  the  under  side 
of  the  animal  that  is  presented ;  and  hence  a  striking  difference  ap- 
parent between  his  representations  of  the  two  genera,  which  would 
scarce  obtain  had  the  upper,  not  the  under  side  of  Pterichthys  been 
exhibited.  In  verification  of  this  remark,  let  the  reader  who  has  ac- 
cess to  the  Monographic  Poissons  Fossiles  compare  the  restoration  of 
Pamphractus  {Old  Red,  Tab.  VI.,  fig.  2)  with  the  upper  side  of  Pter- 
ichthys, as  figured  in  this  volume,  Plate  I.,  fig.  1,  making,  of  course, 
the  due  allowance  for  a  difference  of  species. 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


171 


these  again,  with  but  one  exception,  from  the  Trilobites  of 
the  upper  Silurian  strata  ;  these  yet  again  from  the  Trilobites 
of  the  underlying  middle  beds  ;  and  these  from  the  Trilobites 
that  occur  in  the  base  of  the  system.  Like  the  coins  and 
medals  of  the  antiquary,  each  represents  its  own  limited 
period  ;  and  the  whole  taken  together  yield  a  consecutive 
record.  But  while  we  find  them  merely  scattered  over  the 
later  formations  in  which  they  occur,  and  that  very  sparingly, 
in  the  Silurian  System  we  find  them  congregated  in  such 
vast  crowds,  that  their  remains  enter  largely  into  the  compo- 
sition of  many  of  the  rocks  which  compose  it.  The  Trilobite 
is  the  distinguishing  organism  of  the  group,  marrying,  if  I 
may  so  express  myself,  its  upper  and  lower  beds ;  and  what 
the  Trilobite  is  to  the  Silurian  formations,  the  Ptericlithys 
seems  to  be  to  the  formations  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  ; 
with  this  difference,  that,  so  far  as  is  yet  known,  it  is  restricted 
to  this  system  alone,  occurring  in  neither  the  Silurian  System 
below,  nor  in  the  Coal  Measures  above. 

I  am  but  imperfectly  acquainted  with  the  localities  in 
which  the  upper  beds  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  underlie 
the  lower  beds  of  the  Coal  Measures,  or  where  any  gradation 
of  character  appears.  The  upper  yellow  sandstone  belt  is 
extensively  developed  in  Moray,  but  it  contains  no  trace  of 
carbonaceous  matter  in  even  its  higher  strata,  and  no  other 
remains  than  those  of  the  Holoptychius  and  its  contempora- 
ries. The  system  in  the  north  of  Scotland  differs  as  much 
from  the  carboniferous  group  in  its  upper  as  in  its  lower 
rocks ;  and  a  similar  difference  has  been  remarked  in  Fife, 
where  the  groups  appear  in  contact  a  few  miles  to  the  west 
of  St.  Andrew's.  In  England,  in  repeated  instances,  the 
junction,  as  shown  by  Mr.  Murchison,  in  singularly  instructive 
sections,  is  well  marked,  the  carboniferous  limestones  resting 


172 


THE   OLD  KED  SANDSTONE. 


conformably  on  the  Upper  Old  Red  Sandstone.    No  other 

system  interposed  between  them. 

There  is  a  Rabbinical  tradition  that  the  sons  of  Tubal- 
Cain,  taught  by  a  prophet  of  the  coming  deluge,  and  unwil- 
ling that  their  father's  arts  should  be  lost  in  it  to  posterity, 
erected  two  obelisks  of  brass,  on  which  they  inscribed  a 
record  of  his  discoveries,  and  that  thus  the  learning  of  the 
family  survived  the  cataclysm.  The  flood  subsided,  and  the 
obelisks,  sculptured  from  pinnacle  to  base,  were  found  fast 
fixed  in  the  rock.  Now,  the  twin  pyramids  of  the  Old  Red 
Sandstone,  with  their  party-colored  bars,  and  their  thickly 
crowded  inscriptions,  belong  to  a  period  immensely  more 
remote  than  that  of  the  columns  of  the  antediluvians,  and 
they  bear  a  more  certain  record.  I  have,  perhaps,  dwelt  too 
long  on  their  various  compartments  ;  but  the  Artist  by  whom 
they  have  been  erected,  and  who  has  preserved  in  them  so 
wonderful  a  chronicle  of  his  earlier  works,  has  willed  surely 
that  they  should  be  read,  and  I  have  perused  but  a  small  por- 
tion of  the  whole.  Years  must  pass  ere  the  entire  record 
can  be  deciphered  ;  but,  of  all  its  curiously  inscribed  sen- 
tences, the  result  will  prove  the  same  —  they  will  all  be  found 
to  testify  of  the  Infinite  Mind. 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


173 


CHAPTER  X. 

Speculations  in  the  Old  Red  Sandstone,  and  their  Character. — 
George,  first  Earl  of  Cromarty.  —  His  Sagacity  as  a  Naturalist  at 
fault  in  one  Instance.  —  Sets  himself  to  dig  for  Coal  in  the  Lower 
Old  lied  Sandstone.  —  Discovers  a  fine  Artesian  Well.  —  Value  of 
Geological  Knowledge  in  an  economic  View.  —  Scarce  a  Secondary 
Formation  in  the  Kingdom  in  which  Coal  has  not  been  sought  for. 
—  Mineral.  Springs  of  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone.  —  Strathpef- 
fer.  —  Its  Peculiarities  whence  derived.  —  Chalybeate  Springs  of 
Easter  Ross  and  the  Black  Isle.  —  Petrifying  Springs.  —  Building- 
Stone  and  Lime  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone.  —  Its  various  Soils. 

There  has  been  much  money  lost,  and  a  good  deal  won, 
in  speculations  connected  with  the  Old  Red  Sandstone.  The 
speculations  in  which  money  has  been  won  have  consorted, 
if  I  may  so  speak,  with  the  character  of  the  system,  and 
those  in  which  money  has  been  lost  have  not.  Instead,  how- 
ever, of  producing  a  formal  chapter  on  the  economic  uses 
to  which  its  various  deposits  have  been  applied,  or  the  unfor- 
tunate undertakings  which  an  acquaintance  with  its  geology 
would  have  prevented,  I  shall  throw  together,  as  they  occur 
to  me,  a  few  simple  facts  illustrative  of  both. 

George,  first  Earl  of  Cromarty,  seems,  like  his  namesake 
and  contemporary,  the  too  celebrated  Sir  George  M'Kenzie, 
of  Roseavoch,  to  have  been  a  man  of  an  eminently  active 
and  inquiring  mind.  He  found  leisure,  in  the  course  of  a 
very  busy  life,  to  write  several  historical  dissertations  of  great 
research,  and  a  very  elaborate  Si/7iopsis  Apocalyptic  a.  He  is 
the  author,  too,  of  an  exceedingly  curious  letter  on  the  44  Sec- 
ond Sight,"  addressed  to  the  philosophic  Boyle,  which  con- 
15  * 


174 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


tains  a  large  amount  of  amusing  and  extraordinary  fact ;  and 
his  description  of  the  formation  of  a  peat-moss  in  the  central 
Highlands  of  Ross-shire  has  been  quoted  by  almost  every 
naturalist  who,  since  the  days  of  the  sagacious,  nobleman, 
has  written  on  the  formation  of  peat.  His  life  was  extended 
to  extreme  old  age  ;  and  as  his  literary  ardor  remained  un- 
diminished till  the  last,  some  of  his  writings  were  produced 
at  a  period  when  most  other  men  are  sunk  in  the  incurious 
indifferency  and  languor  of  old  age.  And  among  these  later 
productions  are  his  remarks  on  peat.  He  relates  that,  when 
a  very  young  man,  he  had  marked,  in  passing  on  a  journey 
through  the  central  Highlands  of  Ross-shire,  a  wood  of  very 
ancient  trees,  doddered  and  moss-grown,  and  evidently  pass- 
ing into  a  state  of  death  through  the  last  stages  of  decay. 
He  had  been  led  by  business  into  the  same  district  many 
years  after,  when  in  middle  life,  and  found  that  the  wood  had 
entirely  disappeared,  and  that  the  heathy  hollow  which  it  had 
covered  was  now  occupied  by  a  green,  stagnant  morass,  un- 
varied in  its  tame  and  level  extent  by  either  bush  or  tree. 
In  his  old  age  he  again  visited  the  locality,  and  saw  the  green 
surface  roughened  with  dingy-colored  hollows,  and  several 
Highlanders  engaged  in  it  in  cutting  peat  in  a  stratum  several 
feet  in  depth.  What  he  had  once  seen  an  aged  forest  had 
now  become  an  extensive  peat-moss. 

Some  time  towards  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century 
he  purchased  the  lands  of  Cromarty,  where  his  turn  for  mi- 
nute observation  seems  to  have  anticipated  —  little,  however, 
to  his  own  profit  —  some  of  the  later  geological  discoveries. 
There  is  a  deep,  wooded  ravine  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
town,  traversed  by  a  small  stream,  which  has  laid  bare,  for 
the  space  of  about  forty  yards  in  the  opening  of  the  hollow, 
the  gray  sandstone  and  stratified  clays  of  the  inferior  fish 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


175 


bed.  The  locality  is  rather  poor  in  ichthyolites,  though  I  have 
found  in  it,  after  minute  search,  a  few  scales  of  the  Osteolepis, 
and  on  one  occasion  one  of  the  better  marked  plates  of 
the  Coccosteus ;  but  in  the  vegetable  impressions  peculiar  to 
the  formation  it  is  very  abundant.  These  are  invariably  car- 
bonaceous, and  are  not  unfrequently  associated  with  minute 
patches  of  bitumen,  which,  in  the  harder  specimens,  present  a 
coal-like  appearance  ;  and  the  vegetable  impressions  and  the 
bitumen  seem  to  have  misled  the  sagacious  nobleman  into  the 
belief  that  coal  might  be  found  on  his  new  property.  He 
accordingly  brought  miners  from  the  south,  and  set  them  to 
bore  for  coal  in  the  gorge  of  the  ravine.  Though  there  was 
probably  a  register  kept  of  the  various  strata  through  which 
they  passed,  it  must  have  long  since  been  lost;  but  from  my 
acquaintance  with  this  portion  of  the  formation,  as  shown  in 
the  neighboring  sections,  where  it  lies  uptiited  against  the 
granitic  gneiss  of  the  Sutors,  I  think  I  could  pretty  nearly 
restore  it.  They  would  first  have  had  to  pass  for  about  thirty 
feet  through  the  stratified  clays  and  shales  of  the  ichthyolite 
bed,  with  here  and  there  a  thin  band  of  gray  sandstone, 
and  here  and  there  a  stratum  of  lime  ;  they  would  next 
have  had  to  penetrate  through  from  eighty  to  a  hundred  feet 
of  coarse  red  and  yellow  sandstone,  the  red  greatly  predom- 
inating. They  would  then  have  entered  the  great  conglom- 
erate, the  lowest  member  of  the  formation  ;  and  in  time,  if 
they  continued  to  urge  their  fruitless  labors,  they  would  arrive 
at  the  primary  rock,  with  its  belts  of  granite,  and  its  veins  and 
huge  masses  of  hornblende.  In  short,  there  might  be  some 
possibility  of  their  penetrating  to  the  central  fire,  but  none 
whatever  of  their  ever  reaching  a  vein  of  coal.  From  a 
curious  circumstance,  however,  .they  were  prevented  from 
ascertaining,  by  actual  experience,  the  utter  barrenness  of  the 
formation. 


176 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


Directly  in  the  gorge  of  the  ravine,  where  we  may  see 
the  partially  wooded  banks  receding  as  they  ascend  from 
the  base  to  the  centre,  and  then  bellying  over  from  the 
centre  to  the  summit,  there  is  a  fine  chalybeate  spring,  sur- 
mounted by  a  dome  of  hewn  stone.  It  was  discovered  by 
the  miners  when  in  quest  of  the  mineral  which  they  did 
not  and  could  not  discover,  and  forms  one  of  the  finest  speci- 
mens of  a  true  Artesian  well  which  I  have  any  where  seen. 
They  had  bored  to  a  considerable  depth,  when,  on  withdraw- 
ing the  kind  of  auger  used  for  the  purpose,  a  bolt  of  water, 
which  occupied  the  whole  diameter  of  the  bore,  came  rushing 
after,  like  the  jet  of  a  fountain,  and  the  work  was  prosecuted 
no  further ;  for,  as  steam-engines  were  not  yet  invented,  no 
pit  could  have  been  wrought  with  so  large  a  stream  issuing 
into  it ;  and  as  the  volume  was  evidently  restricted  by  the  size 
of  the  bore,  it  was  impossible  to  say  how  much  greater  a 
stream  the  source  might  have  supplied.  The  spring  still  con- 
tinues to  flow  towards  the  sea,  between  its  double  row  of 
cresses,  at  the  rate  of  about  a  hogshead  per  minute  —  a  rate 
considerably  diminished,  it  is  said,  from  its  earlier  volume,  by 
some  obstruction  in  the  bore.  The  waters  are  not  strongly 
tinctured  —  a  consequence,  perhaps,  of  their  great  abundance  ; 
but  we  may  see  every  pebble  and  stock  in  their  course  envel- 
oped by  a  ferruginous  coaguium,  resembling  burnt  sienna, 
that  has  probably  been  disengaged  from  the  dark  red  sand- 
stone below,  which  is  known  to  owe  its  color  to  the  oxide  of 
iron.  A  Greek  poet  would  probably  have  described  the  inci- 
dent as  the  birth  of  the  Naiad  ;  in  the  north,  however,  which, 
in  an  earlier  age,  had  also  its  Naiads,  though,  like  the  fish  of 
the  Old  Red  Sandstone,  they  have  long  since  become  extinct, 
the  recollection  of  it  is  merely  preserved  by  tradition,  as  a  cu- 
rious, though  by  no  means  poetical  fact,  and  by  the  name  of 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


177 


the  well,  which  is  still  known  as  the  well  of  the  coal-heugh  — 
the  old  Scotch  name  for  a  coal-pit.  Calderwood  tells  us,  in 
his  description  of  a  violent  tempest  which  burst  out  immedi- 
ately as  his  persecutor,  James  VI.,  breathed  his  last,  that  in 
Scotland  the  sea  rose  high  upon  the  land,  and  that  many 
"  coal-heuglis  were  drowned." 

There  is  no  science  whose  value  can  be  adequately  esti- 
mated by  economists  and  utilitarians  of  the  lower  order.  Its 
true  quantities  cannot  be  represented  by  arithmetical  figures  or 
monetary  tables  ;  for  its  effects  on  mind  must  be  as  surely 
taken  into  account  as  its  operations  on  matter,  and  what  it  has 
accomplished  for  the  human  intellect  as  certainly  as  what  it 
has  dene  for  the  comforts  of  society  or  the  interests  of  com- 
merce. Who  can  attach  a  marketable  value  to  the  discov- 
eries of  Newton  ?  I  need  hardly  refer  to  the  often-quoted 
remark  of  Johnson  ;  the  beauty  of  the  language  in  which  it  is 
couched  has  rendered  patent  to  all  the  truth  which  it  conveys. 
"  Whatever  withdraws  us  from  the  power  of  the  senses,"  says 
the  moralist  —  "  whatever  makes  the  past,  the  distant,  or  the 
future,  predominate  over  the  present,  advances  us  in  the  dig- 
nity of  thinking  beings."  And  Geology,  in  a  peculiar  man- 
ner, supplies  to  the  intellect  an  exercise  of  this  ennobling 
character.  But  it  has,  also,  its  cash  value.  The  time  and 
money  squandered  in  Great  Britain  alone  in  searching  for 
coal  in  districts  where  the  well-informed  geologist  could  have 
at  once  pronounced  the  search  hopeless,  would  much  more 
than  cover  the  expense  at  which  geological  research  has  been 
prosecuted  throughout  the  world.  There  are  few  districts  in 
Britain  occupied  by  the  secondary  deposits,  in  which,  at  one 
time  or  another,  the  attempt  has  not  been  made.  It  has  been 
the  occasion  of  enormous  expenditure  in  the  south  of  Eng- 
land among  the  newer  formations,  where  the  coal,  if  it  at  all 


178 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


occurs,  (for  we  occasionally  meet  with  wide  gaps  in  the  scale,) 
must  be  buried  at  an  unapproachable  depth.  It  led  in 
Scotland  —  in  the  northern  county  of  Sutherland — to  an 
unprofitable  working  for  many  years  of  a  sulphureous  lignite 
of  the  inferior  Oolite,  far  above  the  true  Coal  Measures.  The 
attempt  I  have  just  been  describing  was  made  in  a  locality  as 
far  beneath  them.  There  is  the  scene  of  another  and  more 
modern  attempt  in  the  same  district,  on  the  shores  of  the 
Moray  Frith,  in  a  detached  patch  of  Lias,  where  a  fossilized 
wood  would  no  doubt  be  found  in  considerable  abundance, 
but  no  continuous  vein  even  of  lignite.  And  it  is  related  by 
Dr.  Anderson,  of  Newburgh,  that  a  fruitless  and  expensive 
search  after  coal  has  lately  been  instituted  in  the  Old  Red 
Sandstone  beds  which  traverse  Strathearn  and  the  Carse  of 
Gowrie,  in  the  belief  that  they  belong  not  to  the  Old,  but  to 
the  New  Red  Sandstone  —  a  formation  which  has  been  suc- 
cessfully perforated  in  prosecuting  a  similar  search  in  various 
parts  of  England.  All  these  instances  —  and  there  are  hun- 
dreds such  —  show  the  economic  importance  of  the  study  of 
fossils.  The  Oolite  has  its  veins  of  apparent  coal  on  the 
coast  of  Yorkshire,  and  its  still  more  amply  developed  veins 
—  one  of  them  nearly  four  feet  in  thickness  —  on  the  eastern 
coast  of  Sutherlandshire  ;  the  Lias  has  its  coniferous  fossils  in 
great  abundance,  some  of  them  converted  into  a  lignite  which 
can  scarce  be  distinguished  from  a  true  coal ;  and  the  bitu- 
minous masses  of  the  Lower  Old  Red,  and  its  carbonaceous 
markings,  appear  identical,  to  an  unpractised  eye,  with  the 
impressions  on  the  carboniferous  sandstones,  and  the  bitumi- 
nous masses  which  they,  too,  are  occasionally  found  to  enclose. 
Nor  does  the  mineralogical  character  of  its  middle  beds  dif- 
fer in  many  cases  from  that  of  the  lower  members  of  the 
New  Red  Sandstone.    I  have  seen  the  older  rock  in  the  north 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


179 


of  Scotland  as  strongly  saliferous  as  any  of  the  newer  sand- 
stones, of  well  nigh  as  bright  a  brick-red  tint,  of  as  friable  and 
mouldering  a  texture,  and  variegated  as  thickly  with  its  specks 
and  streaks  of  green  and  buff-color.  But  in  all  these  instances 
there  are  strongly  characterized  groups  of  fossils,  which,  like 
the  landmarks  of  the  navigator,  or  the  findings  of  his  quad- 
rant, establish  the  true  place  of  the  formations  to  which  they 
belong.  Like  the  patches  of  leather,  of  scarlet,  and  of  blue, 
which  mark  the  line  attached  to  the  deep-sea  lead,  they  show 
the  various  depths  at  which  we  arrive.  The  Earls  of  Suth- 
erland set  themselves  to  establish  a  coal-work  among  the 
chambered  univalves  of  the  Oolite,  and  a  vast  abundance  of 
its  peculiar  bivalves.  The  coal-borers  who  perforated  the 
Lias  near  Cromarty  passed  every  day  to  and  from  their  work 
over  one  of  the  richest  deposits  of  animal  remains  in  the 
kingdom  —  a  deposit  full  of  the  most  characteristic  fossils; 
and  drove  their  auger  through  a  thousand  belemnites  and 
ammonites  of  the  upper  and  inferior  Lias,  and  through  gryph- 
ites  and  ichthyodorulites  innumerable.  The  sandstones  of 
Strathearn  and  the  Carse  of  Gowrie  yield  their  plates  and 
scales  of  the  Holopty chins,  the  most  abundant  fossil  of  the 
Upper  Old  Red  ;  and  the  shale  of  the  little  dell  in  which  the 
first  Earl  of  Cromarty  set  his  miners  to  work,  contains,  as  I 
have  said,  plates  of  the  Coccosteus  and  scales  of  the  Osteole- 
pis  —  fossils  found  only  in  the  Lower  Old  Red.  Nature,  in 
all  these  localities,  furnished  the  index,  but  men  lacked  the 
skill  necessary  to  decipher  it.*    I  may  mention  that,  inde- 


*  There  occurs  in  Mr.  Murchison's  Silurian  System  a  singularly 
amusing  account  of  one  of  the  most  unfortunate  of  all  coal-boring 
enterprises ;  the  unlucky  projector,  a  Welsh  farmer,  having  set  him- 
self to  dig  for  coal  in  the  lowest  member  of  the  system,  at  least  six 


180 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


pendently  of  their  well-marked  organisms,  there  is  a  simple 
test  through  which  the  lignites  of  the  newer  formations  may 
be  distinguished  from  the  true  coal  of  the  carboniferous  sys- 
tem. Coal,  though  ground  into  an  impalpable  powder,  re- 
tains its  deep  black  color,  and  may  be  used  as  a  black  pig- 
ment;  lignite,  on  the  contrary,  when  fully  levigated,  assumes 
a  reddish,  or,  rather,  umbry  hue. 

I  have  said  that  the  waters  of  the  well  of  the  coal-heugh 
are  chalybeate  —  a  probable  consequence  of  their  infiltration 
through  the  iron  oxides  of  the  superior  beds  of  the  formation, 
and  their  subsequent  passage  through  the  deep  red  strata  of 


formations  beneath  the  only  one  at  which  the  object  of  his  search 
could  have  been  found.    Mr.  Murchison  thus  relates  the  story  :  — 

"  At  Tin-y-coed  I  found  a  credulous  farmer  ruining-  himself  in  ex- 
cavating a  horizontal  gallery  in  search  of  coal,  an  ignorant  miner 
being  his  engineer.  The  case  may  serve  as  a  striking  example  of  the 
coal-boring  mania  in  districts  which  cannot  by  possibility  contain  that 
mineral ;  and  a  few  words  concerning  it  may,  therefore,  prove  a  sal- 
utary warning  to  those  who  speculate  for  coal  in  the  Silurian  Rocks. 
The  farmhouse  of  Tin-y-coed  is  situated  on  the  sloping  sides  of  a  hill 
of  trap,  which  throw  off,  upon  its  north-western  flank,  thin  beds  of 
black  grauwacke  shale,  dipping  to  the  west-north -west  at  a  high  an- 
gle. The  color  of  the  shale,  and  of  the  water  that  flowed  down  its 
sides,  the  pyritous  veins,  and  other  vulgar  symptoms  of  coal-bearing 
strata,  had  long  convinced  the  farmer  that  he  possessed  a  large  hid- 
den mass  of  coal,  and,  unfortunately,  a  small  fragment  of  real  anthra- 
cite was  discovered,  which  burnt  like  the  best  coal.  Miners  were 
sent  for,  and  operations  commenced.  To  sink  a  shaft  was  imprac- 
ticable, both  from  the  want  of  means,  and  the  large  volume  of  water. 
A  slightly  inclined  gallery  was  therefore  commenced,  the  mouth  of 
which  was  opened  at  the  bottom  of  the  hill,  on  the  side  of  the  little 
brook  which  waters  the  dell.  I  have  already  stated  that,  in  many 
cases,  where  the  intrusive  trap  throws  off  the  shale,  the  latter  pre- 
serves its  natural  and  unaltered  condition  to  within  a  certain  distance 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


181 


the  inferior  bed.  There  could  be  very  curious  chapters  writ- 
ten on  mineral  springs,  in  their  connection  with  the  formations 
through  which  they  pass.  Smollett's  masterpiece,  honest  old 
Matthew  Bramble,  became  thoroughly  disgusted  with  the  Bath 
waters  on  discovering  that  they  filtered  through  an  ancient 
burying-ground  belonging  to  the  Abbey,  and  that  much  of 
their  peculiar  taste  and  odor  might  probably  be  owing  to  the 
"  rotten  bones  and  mouldering  carcasses "  through  which 
they  were  strained.  Some  of  the  springs  of  the  Old  Red 
Sandstone  have  also  the  churchyard  taste,  but  the  bones  and 
carcasses  through  which  they  strain  are  much  older  than 
those  of  the  Abbey  burying-ground  at  Bath.    The  bitumen 


of  the  trap ;  and  so  it  was  at  Tin-y-coed,  for  the  level  proceeded  for 
155  feet  with  little  or  no  obstacle.  Mounds  of  soft  black  shale  attest- 
ed the  rapid  progress  of  the  adventurers,  when  suddenly  they  came 
to  a  *  change  of  metal.'  They  were  now  approaching  the  nucleus  of 
the  little  ridge ;  and  the  rock  they  encountered  was,  as  the  men  in- 
formed me,  (  as  hard  as  iron,'  viz.,  of  lydianized  schist,  precisely  anal- 
ogous to  that  which  is  exposed  naturally  in  ravines  where  all  the 
phenomena  are  laid  bare.  The  deluded  people,  however,  endeavored 
to  penetrate  the  hardened  mass,  but  the  vast  expense  of  blasting  it 
put  a  stop  to  the  undertaking,  not,  however,  without  a  thorough  con- 
viction on  the  part  of  the  farmer,  that,  could  he  but  have  got  through 
that  hard  stuff,  he  would  most  surely  have  been  well  recompensed, 
for  it  was  just  thereabouts  that  they  began  to  find  '  small  veins  of 
coal'  It  has  been  before  shown,  that  portions  of  anthracite  are  not 
unfrequent  in  the  altered  shale,  where  it  is  in  contact  with  the  intru- 
sive rock.  And  the  occurrence  of  the  smallest  portion  of  anthracite 
is  always  sufficient  to  lead  the  Radnorshire  farmer  to  suppose  that 
he  is  very  near  <  El  Dorado.'  Amid  all  their  failures,  I  never  met 
with  an  individual  who  was  really  disheartened  ;  a  frequent  exclama- 
tion being,  4 O,  if  our  squires  were  only  men  of  spirit,  we  should 
have  as  fine  coal  as  any  in  the  world  !  '  "  —  [Silurian  System,  Part  I., 
p.  328.) 

16 


182 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


of  the  strongly  impregnated  rocks  and  clay-beds  of  this  for- 
mation, like  the  bitumen  of  the  still  more  strongly  impreg- 
nated limestones  and  shales  of  the  Lias,  seems  to  have  had 
rather  an  animal  than  vegetable  origin.  The  shales  of  the 
Eathie  Lias  burn  like  turf  soaked  in  oil,  and  yet  they  hardly 
contain  one  per  cent,  of  vegetable  matter.  In  a  single  cubic 
inch,  however,  I  have  counted  about  eighty  molluscous 
organisms,  mostly  ammonites,  and  minute  striated  scallops  ; 
and  the  mass,  when  struck  with  the  hammer,  still  yields  the 
heavy  odor  of  animal  matter  in  a  state  of  decay.  The  lower 
fish-beds  of  the  Old  Red  are,  in  some  localities,  scarcely  less 
bituminous.  The  fossil  scales  and  plates,  which  they  enclose, 
burn  at  the  candle  ;  they  contain  small  cavities  filled  with  a 
strongly  scented,  semi-fluid  bitumen,  as  adhesive  as  tar,  and 
as  inflammable  ;  and  for  many  square  miles  together  the  bed 
is  composed  almost  exclusively  of  a  dark-colored,  semi-calca- 
reous, semi-aluminous  schist,  scarcely  less  fetid,  from  the 
great  quantity  of  this  substance  which  it  contains,  than  the 
swine-stones  of  England.  Its  vegetable  remains  bear  but  a 
small  proportion  to  its  animal  organisms  ;  and  from  huge  ac- 
cumulations of  these  last  decomposing  amid  the  mud  of  a 
still  sea,  little  disturbed  by  tempests  or  currents,  and  then  sud- 
denly interred  by  some  widely  spread  catastrophe,  to  ferment 
and  consolidate  under  vast  beds  of  sand  and  conglomerate, 
the  bitumen*  seems  to  have  been  elaborated.  These  bitu- 
minous schists,  largely  charged  with  sulphuret  of  iron,  run 
far  into  the  interior,  along  the  flanks  of  the  gigantic  Ben  We- 


*  « In  the  slaty  schists  of  Seefeld,  in  the  Tyrol,"  say  Messrs.  Sedg- 
wick and  Murchison,  "  there  is  such  an  abundance  of  a  similar  bitu- 
men, that  it  is  largely  extracted  for  medicinal  purposes."  —  (GeoL 
Trans,  for  1829,  p.  134.) 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


183 


vis,  and  through  the  exquisitely  pastoral  valley  of  Strathpef- 
fer.  The  higher  hills  which  rise  over  the  valley  are  formed 
mostly  of  the  great  conglomerate  —  Knockferril,  with  its  vit- 
rified fort  —  the  wooded  and  precipitous  ridge  over  Brahan 
—  and  the  middle  eminences  of  the  gigantic  mountain  on  the 
north ;  but  the  bottom  and  the  lower  slopes  of  the  valley  are 
occupied  by  the  bituminous  and  sulphureous  schists  of  the 
fish-bed,  and  in  these,  largely  impregnated  with  the  peculiar 
ingredients  of  the  formation,  the  famous  medicinal  springs  of 
the  Strath  have  their  rise.  They  contain,  as  shown  by  chem- 
ical analysis,  the  sulphates  of  soda,  of  lime,  of  magnesia, 
common  salt,  and,  above  all,  sulphuretted  hydrogen  gas  — 
elements  which  masses  of  sea-mud,  charged  with  animal 
matter,  would  yield  as  readily  to  the  chemist  as  the  medicinal 
springs  of  Strath pefFcr.  Is  it  not  a  curious  reflection,  that 
the  commercial  greatness  of  Britain,  in  the  present  day,  should 
be  closely  connected  with  the  towering  and  thickly  spread 
forests  of  arboraceous  ferns  and  gigantic  reeds  —  vegetables 
of  strange  form  and  uncouth  names  —  which  flourished  and 
decayed  on  its  surface,  age  after  age,  during  the  vastly  ex- 
tended term  of  the  carboniferous  period,  ere  the  mountains 
were  yet  upheaved,  and  when  there  was  as  yet  no  man  to  till 
the  ground  ?  Is  it  not  a  reflection  equally  curious,  that  the 
invalids  of  the  present  summer  should  be  drinking  health, 
amid  the  recesses  of  StrathpefTer,  from  the  still  more  ancient 
mineral  and  animal  debris  of  the  lower  ocean  of  the  Old  Red 
Sandstone,  strangely  elaborated  for  vast  but  unreckoned  peri- 
ods in  the  bowels  of  the  earth  ?  The  fact  may  remind  us  of 
one  of  the  specifics  of  a  now  obsolete  school  of  medicine, 
which  flourished  in  this  country  about  two  centuries  ago,  and 
which  included  in  its  materia  medica  portions  of  the  human 
frame.    Among  these  was  the  flesh  of  Egyptian  mummies, 


184  THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 

impregnated  with  the  embalming  drugs  —  the  dried  muscles 
and  sinews  of  human  creatures  who  had  walked  in  the  streets 
of  Thebes  or  of  Luxor  three  thousand  years  ago. 

The  commoner  mineral  springs  of  the  formation,  as  might 
be  anticipated,  from  the  very  general  diffusion  of  the  oxide 
to  which  it  owes  its  color,  are  chalybeate.  There  are  dis- 
tricts in  Easter-Ross  and  the  Black  Isle  in  which  the  traveller 
scarcely  sees  a  runnel  by  the  way-side  that  is  not  half  choked 
up  by  its  fox-colored  coagulum  of  oxide.  Two  of  the  most 
strongly  impregnated  chalybeates  with  which  I  am  acquainted 
gush  out  of  a  sandstone  bed,  a  few  yards  apart,  among  the 
woods  of  Tarbat  House,  on  the  northern  shore  of  the  Frith 
of  Cromarty.  They  splash  among  the  pebbles  with  a  half- 
gurgling,  half-tinkling  sound,  in  a  solitary  but  not  unpleasing 
recess,  darkened  by  alders  and  willows  ;  and  their  waters, 
after  uniting  in  the  same  runnel,  form  a  little,  melancholy 
looking  loclian,  matted  over  with  weeds,  and  edged  with  flags 
and  rushes,  and  which  swarms  in  early  summer  with  the 
young  of  the  frog  in  its  tadpole  state,  and  in  the  after  months 
with  the  black  water-beetle  and  the  newt.  The  circumstance 
is  a  somewhat  curious  one,  as  the  presence  of  iron  as  an  ox- 
ide has  been  held  so  unfavorable  to  both  animal  and  vegeta- 
ble life,  that  the  supposed  poverty  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone 
in  fossil  remains  has  been  attributed  to  its  almost  universal 
diffusion  at  the  period  the  deposition  was  taking  place.  Were 
the  system  as  poor  as  has  been  alleged,  however,  it  might  be 
questioned,  on  the  strength  of  a  fact  such  as  this,  whether 
the  iron  militated  so  much  against  the  living  existences  of 
the  formation,  as  against  the  preservation  of  their  remains 
when  dead. 

Some  of  the  springs  which  issue  from  the  ichthyolite  beds 
along  the  shores  of  the  Moray  Frith  are  largely  charged,  not 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


185 


with  iron,  like  the  well  of  the  coal-heugh,  or  the  springs  of 
Tarbat  House,  nor  yet  with  hydrogen  and  soda,  like  the  spa 
of  Strathpeffer,  but  with  carbonate  of  lime.  When  employed 
for  domestic  purposes,  they  choke  up,  in  a  few  years,  with  a 
stony  deposition,  the  spouts  of  tea-kettles.  On  a  similar 
principle,  they  plug  up  their  older  channels,  and  then  burst 
out  in  new  ones  ;  nor  is  it  uncommon  to  find  among  the  cliffs 
little  hollow  recesses,  long  since  divested  of  their  waters  by 
this  process,  that  are  still  thickly  surrounded  by  coral-like  in- 
crustations of  moss  and  lichens,  grass  and  nettle-stalks,  and 
roofed  with  marble-like  stalactites.  I  am  acquainted  with  at 
least  one  of  these  springs  of  very  considerable  volume,  and  ded- 
icated of  old  to  an  obscure  Roman  Catholic  saint,  whose  name 
it  still  bears,  (St.  Bennet,)  which  presents  phenomena  not  un- 
worthy the  attention  of  the  young  geologist.  It  comes  gush- 
ing from  out  the  ichthyolite  bed,  where  the  latter  extends,  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Cromarty,  along  the  shores  of  the  Moray 
Frith  ;  and  after  depositing  in  a  stagnant  morass  an  accumu- 
lation of  a  grayish-colored  and  partially  consolidated  traver- 
tin, escapes  by  two  openings  to  the  shore,  where  it  is  absorbed 
among  the  sand  and  gravel.  A  storm  about  three  years  ago 
swept  the  beach  several  feet  beneath  its  ordinary  level,  and 
two  little  moles  of  conglomerate  and  sandstone,  the  work  of 
the  spring,  were  found  to  occupy  the  two  openings.  Each 
had  its  fossils  —  comminuted  sea-shells,  and  stalks  of  hardened 
moss ;  and  in  one  of  the  moles  I  found  imbedded  a  few  of 
the  vertebral  joints  of  a  sheep.  It  was  a  recent  formation 
on  a  small  scale,  bound  together  by  a  calcareous  cement  fur- 
nished by  the  fish-beds  of  the  inferior  Old  Red  Sandstone, 
and  composed  of  sand  and  pebbles,  mostly  from  the  granitic 
gneiss  of  the  neighboring  hill,  and  organisms,  vegetable  and 
animal,  from  both  the  land  and  the  sea. 
16* 


186 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


The  Old  Red  Sandstone  of  Scotland  has  been  extensively 
employed  for  the  purposes  of  the  architect,  and  its  limestones 
occasionally  applied  to  those  of  the  agriculturist.  As  might 
be  anticipated  in  reference  to  a  deposit  so  widely  spread,  the 
quality  of  both  its  sandstones  and  its  lime  is  found  to  vary 
exceedingly  in  even  the  same  beds  when  examined  in  differ- 
ent localities.  Its  inferior  conglomerate,  for  instance,  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Cromarty,  weathers  so  rapidly,  that  a  fence 
built  of  stones  furnished  by  it  little  more  than  half  a  century 
ago,  has  mouldered  in  some  places  into  a  mere  grass-covered 
mound.  The  same  bed  in  the  neighborhood  of  Inverness  is 
composed  of  a  stone  nearly  as  hard  and  quite  as  durable  as 
granite,  and  which  has  been  employed  in  paving  the  streets  of 
the  place  —  a  purpose  which  it  serves  as  well  as  any  of  the 
igneous  or  primary  rocks  could  have  done.  At  Redcastle, 
on  the  northern  shore  of  the  Frith  of  Beauly,  the  same  con- 
glomerate assumes  an  intermediate  character, '  and  forms, 
though  coarse,  an  excellent  building  stone,  which,  in  some  of 
the  older  ruins  of  the  district,  presents  the  marks  of  the  tool 
as  sharply  indented  as  when  under  the  hands  of  the  work- 
man. Some  of  the  sandstone  beds  of  the  system  are  strongly 
saliferous ;  and  these,  however  coherent  they  may  appear, 
never  resist  the  weather  until  first  divested  of  their  salt.  The 
main  ichthyolite  bed  on  the  northern  shore  of  the  Moray 
Frith  is  overlaid  by  a  thick  deposit  of  a  finely-tinted  yellow 
sandstone  of  this  character,  which,  unlike  most  sandstones  of 
a  mouldering  quality,  resists  the  frosts  and  storms  of  winter, 
and  wastes  only  when  the  weather  becomes  warm  and  diy. 
A  few  days  of  sunshine  affect  it  more  than  whole  months  of 
high  winds  and  showers.  The  heat  crystallizes  at  the  surface 
the  salt  which  it  contains  ;  the  crystals,  acting  as  wedges, 
throw  off  minute  particles  of  the  stone  ;  and  thus,  mechani- 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


187 


cally  at  least,  the  degrading  process  is  the  same  as  that  to 
which  sandstones  of  a  different  but  equally  inferior  quality 
are  exposed  during  severe  frosts.  In  the  course  of  years, 
however,  this  sandstone,  when  employed  in  building,  loses  its 
salt ;  crust  after  crust  is  formed  on  the  surface,  and  either 
forced  off  by  the  crystals  underneath,  or  washed  away  by  the 
rains;  and  then  the  stone  ceases  to  waste,  and  gathers  on  its 
weathered  inequalities  a  protecting  mantle  of  lichens.*  The 
most  valuable  quarries  in  the  Old  Red  System  of  Scotland  yet 
discovered,  are  the  flagstone  quarries  of  Caithness  and  Car- 
mylie.  The  former  have  been  opened  in  the  middle  schists 
of  the  lower,  or  Tilestone  formation  of  the  system  ;  the  latter, 
as  I  have  had  occasion  to  remark  oftener  than  once,  in  the 
Cornstone,  or  middle  formation.  The  quarries  of  both  Car- 
mylie  and  Caithness  employ  hundreds  of  workmen,  and  their 
flagstones  form  an  article  of  commerce.  The  best  building- 
stone  of  the  north  of  Scotland  —  best  both  for  beauty  and 
durability  —  is  a  pure  Quartzose  Sandstone  furnished  by  the 
upper  beds  of  the  system.  These  are  extensively  quarried 
in  Moray,  near  the  village  of  Burghead,  and  exported  to  all 
parts  of  the  kingdom.    The  famous  obelisk  of  Forres,  so 


*  When  left  to  time  the  process  is  a  tedious  one,  and,  ere  its  accom- 
plishment, the  beauty  of  the  masonry  is  always  in  some  degree  de- 
stroyed. The  following  passage,  from  a  popular  work,  points  out  a 
mode  by  which  it  might  possibly  be  anticipated,  and  the  waste  of  sur- 
face prevented  :  —  "  A  hall  of  which  the  walls  wrere  constantly  damp, 
though  every  means  were  employed  to  keep  them  dry,  was  about  to 
be  pulled  down,  when  M.  Schmithall  recommended,  as  a  last  resource, 
that  the  walls  should  be  washed  with  sulphuric  acid,  (vitriol.)  It 
wTas  done,  and  the  deliquescent  salts  being  decomposed  by  acid,  the 
walls  dried,  and  the  hall  was  afterwards  free  from  dampness."  -  (Rec- 
reations in  Science.) 


188 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


interesting  to  the  antiquary  —  which  has  been  described  by 
some  writers  as  formed  of  a  species  of  stone  unknown  in  the 
district,  and  which,  according  to  a  popular  tradition,  was 
transported  from  the  Continent — is  evidently  composed  of 
this  Quartzose  Sandstone,  and  must  have  been  dug  out  of 
one  of  the  neighboring  quarries.  And  so  coherent  is  its  tex- 
ture, that  the  storms  of,  perhaps,  ten  centuries  have  failed 
to  obliterate  its  rude  but  impressive  sculptures. 

The  limestones  of  both  the  upper  and  lower  formations  of 
the  system  have  been  wrought  in  Moray  with  tolerable  suc- 
cess. In  both,  however,  they  contain  a  considerable  per 
centage  of  siliceous  and  argillaceous  earth.  The  system, 
though  occupying  an  intermediate  place  between  two  metal- 
liferous deposits,  —  the  grauwacke  and  the  carboniferous 
limestone,  —  has  not  been  found  to  contain  workable  veins 
any  where  in  Britain,  and  in  Scotland  no  metallic  veins  of  any 
kind,  with  the  exception  of  here  and  there  a  few  slender 
threads  of  ironstone,  and  here  and  there  a  few  detached  crys- 
tals of  galena.  Its  wealth  consists  exclusively  in  building 
and  paving  stone,  and  in  lime.  Some  of  the  richest  tracts  of 
corn  land  in  the  kingdom  rest  on  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  — 
the  agricultural  valley  of  Strathmore,  for  instance,  and  the 
fertile  plains  of  Easter-Ross  :  Caithness  has  also  its  deep, 
corn-bearing  soils,  and  Moray  has  been  well  known  for  cen- 
turies as  the  granary  of  Scotland.  But  in  all  these  localities 
the  fertility  seems  derived  rather  from  an  intervening  subsoil 
of  tenacious  diluvial  clay,  than  from  the  rocks  of  the  system. 
Wherever  the  clay  is  wanting,  the  soil  is  barren.  In  the  moor 
of  the  Milbuy,  —  a  tract  about  fifty  square  miles  in  extent,  and 
lying  within  an  hour's  walk  of  the  Friths  of  Cromarty  and 
Beauly,  —  a  thin  covering  of  soil  rests  on  the  sandstones  of  the 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


189 


lower  formation.  And  so  extreme  is  the  barrenness  of  this  moor, 
that  notwithstanding  the  advantages  of  its  semi-insular  situation, 
it  was  suffered  to  lie  as  an  unclaimed  common  until  about 
twenty-five  years  ago,  when  it  was  parcelled  out  among  the 
neighboring  proprietors. 


190 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

Geological  Physiognomy.  —  Scenery  of  the  Primary  Formations  ; 
Gneiss,  Mica  Schist,  Quartz  Hock.  —  Of  the  Secondary  ;  the  Chalk 
Formations,  the  Oolite,  the  New  Red  Sandstone,  the  Coal  Measures. 
—  Scenery  in  the  Neighborhood  of  Edinburgh.  —  Aspect  of  the 
Trap  Rocks.  —  The  Disturbing  and  Denuding  Agencies.  —  Distinc- 
tive Features  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone.  —  Of  the  Great  Conglom- 
erate. —  Of  the  Ichthyolite  Beds.  —  The  Burn  of  Eathie.  — The 
Upper  Old  Red  Sandstones.  —  Scene  in  Moray. 

Physiognomy  is  no  idle  or  doubtful  science  in  connection 
with  Geology.  The  physiognomy  of  a  country  indicates, 
almost  invariably,  its  geological  character.  There  is  scarce  a 
rock  among  the  more  ancient  groups  that  does  not  affect  its 
peculiar  form  of  hill  and  valley.  Each  has  its  style  of  land- 
scape ;  and  as  the  vegetation  of  a  district  depends  often  on 
the  nature  of  the  underlying  deposits,  not  only  are  the  main 
outlines  regulated  by  the  mineralogy  of  the  formations  which 
they  define,  but  also  in  many  cases  the  manner  in  which  these 
outlines  are  filled  up.  The  coloring  of  the  landscape  is  well 
nigh  as  intimately  connected  with  its  Geology  as  the  drawing. 
The  traveller  passes  through  a,  mountainous  region  of  gneiss. 
The  hills,  which,  though  bulky,  are  shapeless,  raise  their  huge 
backs  so  high  over  the  brown,  dreary  moors,  which,  unvaried 
by  precipice  or  ravine,  stretch  away  for  miles  from  their 
feet,  that  even  amid  the  heats  of  midsummer  the  snow  gleams 
in  streaks  and  patches  from  their  summits.  And  yet  so  vast  is 
their  extent  of  base,  and  their  tops  so  truncated,  that  they 
seem  but  half-finished  hills  notwithstanding  —  hills  interdicted 
somehow  in  the  forming,  and  the  work  stopped  ere  the  upper 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


191 


stories  had  been  added.  He  pursues  his  journey,  and  enters 
a  district  of  micaceous  schist.  The  hills  arc  no  longer 
truncated,  or  thet  moors  unbroken  ;  the  heavy  ground-swell  of 
the  former  landscape  has  become  a  tempestuous  sea,  agitated 
by  powerful  winds  and  conflicting  tides.  The  picturesque  and 
somewhat  fantastic  outline  is  composed  of  high,  sharp  peaks, 
bold,  craggy  domes,  steep,  broken  acclivities,  and  deeply  ser- 
rated ridges  ;  and  the  higher  hills  seem  as  if  set  round  with  a 
framework  of  props  and  buttresses,  that  stretch  out  on  every 
side  like  the  roots  of  an  ancient  oak.  He  passes  on,  and  the 
landscape  varies  ;  the  surrounding  hills,  though  lofty,  pyram- 
idal, and  abrupt,  are  less  rugged  than  before  ;  and  the  ra- 
vines, though  still  deep  and  narrow,  are  walled  by  ridges  no 
longer  serrated  and  angular,  but  comparatively  rectilinear  and 
smooth.  But  the  vegetation  is  even  more  scanty  than  for- 
merly ;  the  steeper  slopes  are  covered  with  streams  of  debris, 
on  which  scarce  a  moss  or  lichen  finds  root  ;  and  the  conoidal 
hills,  bare  of  soil  from  their  summits  half  way  down,  seem  so 
many  naked  skeletons,  that  speak  of  the  decay  and  death  of 
nature.  All  is  solitude  and  sterility.  The  territory  is  one  of 
Quartz  rock.  Still  the  traveller  passes  on :  the  mountains 
sink  into  low  swellings  ;  long  rectilinear  ridges  run  out 
towards  the  distant  sea,  and  terminate  in  bluff,  precipitous 
headlands.  The  valleys,  soft  and  pastoral,  widen  into  plains, 
or  incline  in  long-drawn  slopes  of  gentlest  declivity.  The 
streams,  hitherto  so  headlong  and  broken,  linger  beside  their 
banks,  and  then  widen  into  friths  and  estuaries.  The  deep 
soil  is  covered  by  a  thick  mantle  of  vegetation  —  by  forest 
trees  of  largest  growth,  and  rich  fields  of  corn  ;  and  the  soli- 
tude of  the  mountains  has  given  place  to  a  busy  population. 
He  has  left  behind  him  the  primary  regions,  and  entered  on 
one  of  the  secondary  districts. 


192 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


And  these  less  rugged  formations  have  also  their  respective 
styles — marred  and  obliterated  often  by  the  Plutonic  agency, 
which  imparts  to  them  in  some  instances  its  own  character,, 
and  in  some  an  intermediate  one,  but  in  general  distinctly 
marked,  and  easily  recognized.  The  Chalk  presents  its  long 
inland  lines  of  apparent  coast,  that  send  out  their  rounded 
headlands,  cape  beyond  cape,  into  the  wooded  or  corn-covered 
plains  below.  Here  and  there,  there  juts  up  at  the  base  of  the 
escarpement  a  white,  obelisk-like  stack ;  here  and  there, 
there  opens  into  the  interior  a  narrow,  grassy  bay,  in  which 
noble  beeches  have  cast  anchor.  There  are  valleys  without 
streams  ;  and  the  landscape  a-top  is  a  scene  of  arid  and  un- 
even downs,  that  seem  to  rise  and  fall  like  the  sea  after  a 
storm.  We  pass  on  to  the  Oolite  :  the  slopes  are  more  gen- 
tle, the  lines  of  rising  ground  less  continuous,  and  less  coast- 
like ;  the  valleys  have  their  rivulets,  and  the  undulating  sur- 
face is  covered  by  a  richer  vegetation.  We  enter  on  a  dis- 
trict of  New  Bed  Sandstone.  Deep,  narrow  ravines  intersect 
elevated  platforms.  There  are  lines  of  low  precipices,  so 
perpendicular  and  so  red,  that  they  seem  as  if  walled  over 
with  new  brick  ;  and  here  and  there,  amid  the  speckled  and 
mouldering  sandstones,  that  gather  no  covering  of  lichen, 
there  stands  up  a  huge,  altar-like  mass  of  lime,  mossy  and 
gray,  as  if  it  represented  a  remoter  antiquity  than  the  rocks 
around  it.  The  Coal  Measures  present  often  the  appearance 
of  vast  lakes  frozen  over  during  a  high  wind,  partially  broken 
afterwards  by  a  sudden  thaw,  and  then  frozen  again.  Their 
shores  stand  up  around  them  in  the  form  of  ridges  and  moun- 
tain chains  of  the  older  rocks ;  and  their  surfaces  are  grooved 
into  flat  valleys  and  long  lines  of  elevation.  Take,  as  an  in- 
stance, the  scenery  about  Edinburgh.  The  Ochil  Hills  and 
the  Grampians  form  the  distant  shores  of  the  seeming  lake 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


193 


or  basin  on  the  one  side,  the  range  of  the  Lammermuirs  and 
the  Pentland  group  on  the  other ;  the  space  between  is  ridged 
and  furrowed  in  long  lines,  that  run  in  nearly  the  same  direc- 
tion from  north-east  to  south-west,  as  if,  when  the  binding 
frost  wras  first  setting  in,  the  wind  had  blown  from  off  the 
northern  or  southern  shore. 

But  whence  these  abrupt,  precipitous  hills  that  stud  the 
landscape,  and  form,  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  the 
city,  its  more  striking  features  ?  They  belong  —  to  return  to 
the  illustration  of  the  twice-frozen  lake  —  to  the  middle  peri- 
od of  thaw,  when  the  ice  broke  up  ;  and,  as  they  are  com- 
posed chiefly  of  matter  ejected  from  the  abyss,  might  have 
characterized  equally  any  of  the  other  formations.  Their 
very  striking  forms,  however,  illustrate  happily  the  operations 
of  the  great  agencies  on  which,  in  the  secondary  and  transi- 
tion deposits,  all  the  peculiarities  of  scenery  depend.  The 
molten  matter  from  beneath  seems  to  have  been  injected,  in 
the  first  instance,  through  rents  and  fissures  among  the  car- 
boniferous shales  and  sandstones  of  the  district,  where  it  lay 
cooling  in  its  subterranean  matrices,  in  beds  and  dikes,  like 
metal  in  the  moulds  of  the  founder ;  and  the  places  which  if 
occupied  must  have  been  indicated  on  the  surface  but  by 
curves  and  swellings  of  the  strata.  The  denuding  power 
then  came  into  operation  in  the  form  of  tides  and  currents, 
and  ground  down  the  superincumbent  rocks.  The  injected 
masses,  now  cooled  and  hardened,  were  laid  bare  ;  and  the 
softer  framework  of  the  moulds  in  which  they  had  been  cast 
was  washed  from  their  summits  and  sides,  except  where  long 
ridges  remained  attached  to  them  in  the  lines  of  the  current, 
as  if  to  indicate  the  direction  in  which  they  had  broken  its 
force.  Every  larger  stone  in  a  water-course,  after  the  tor- 
rent fed  by  a  thunder  shower  has  just  subsided,  shows,  on  the 
17 


194 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


same  principle,  its  trail  of  sand  and  shingle  piled  up  behind 
it.  The  outlines  of  the  landscape  were  modified  yet  further 
by  the  yielding  character  of  the  basement  of  sandstone  or 
shale  on  which  the  Plutonic  beds  so  often  rest.  The  base- 
ment crumbled  away  as  the  tides  and  waves  broke  against  it. 
The  injected  beds  above,  undermined  in  the  process,  and  with 
a  vertical  cleavage,  induced  by  their  columnar  tendency,  fell 
down  in  masses  that  left  a  front  perpendicular  as  a  wall. 
Each  bed  came  thus  to  present  its  own  upright  line  of  preci- 
pice ;  and  hence  —  when  they  rise  bed  above  bed,  as  often 
occurs  —  the  stair-like  outline  of  hill  to  which  the  trap  rocks 
owe  their  name  ;  hence  the  outline  of  the  Dalmahoy  Crags, 
for  instance,  and  of  the  southern  and  western  front  of  Salis- 
bury Crags. 

In  all  the  sedimentary  formations  the  peculiarities  of  sce- 
nery depend  on  three  circumstances  —  on  the  Plutonic  agen- 
cies, the  denuding  agencies,  and  the  manner  and  proportions 
in  which  the  harder  and  softer  beds  of  the  deposits  on  which 
these  operated  alternate  with  one  another.  There  is  an  union 
of  the  active  and  the  passive  in  the  formation  of  landscape  ; 
that  which  disturbs  and  grinds  down,  and  that  which,  accord- 
ing to  its  texture  and  composition,  affects,  if  I  may  so  speak, 
a  peculiar  style  of  being  ground  down  and  disturbed  ;  and  it 
is  in  the  passive  circumstances  that  the  peculiarities  chiefly 
originate,  Hence  it  is  that  the  scenery  of  the  Chalk  differs 
from  the  scenery  of  the  Oolite,  and  both  from  that  of  the 
Coal  Measures.  The  Old  Red  Sandstone  has  also  its  pecu- 
liarities of  prospect,  which  vary  according  to  its  formations, 
and  the  amount  and  character  of  the  disturbing  and  denuding 
agencies  to  which  these  have  been  exposed.  Instead,  how- 
ever, of  crowding  its  various,  and,  in  some  instances,  dissim- 
ilar features  into  one  landscape,  I  shall  introduce  to  the  reader 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


195 


a  few  of  its  more  striking  and  characteristic  scenes,  as  ex- 
hibited in  various  localities,  and  by  different  deposits,  begin- 
ning first  with  its  conglomerate  base. 

The  great  antiquity  of  this  deposit  is  unequivocally  indi- 
cated by  the  manner  in  which  we  find  it  capping,  far  in  the 
interior,  in  insulated  beds  and  patches,  some  of  our  loftier 
hills,  or,  in  some  instances,  wrapping  them  round,  as  with  a 
caul,  from  base  to  summit.  It  mixes  largely,  in  our  northern 
districts,  with  the  mountain  scenery  of  the  country,  and  im- 
parts strength  and  boldness  of  outline  to  every  landscape  in 
which  it  occurs.  Its  island-like  patches  affect  generally  a 
bluff  parabolic  or  conical  outline  ;  its  loftier  hills  present 
rounded,  dome-like  summits,  which  sink  to  the  plain  on  the 
one  hand  in  steep,  slightly  concave  lines,  and  on  the  other  in 
lines  decidedly  convex,  and  a  little  less  steep.  The  moun- 
tain of  boldest  outline  in 'the  line  of  the  Caledonian  Valley 
(Mealforvony)  is  composed  externally  of  this  rock.  Except 
where  covered  by  the  diluvium,  it  seems  little  friendly  to 
vegetation.  Its  higher  summits  are  well  nigh  as  bare  as 
those  of  the  primary  rocks  ;  and  when  a  public  road  crosses 
its  lower  ridges,  the  traveller  generally  finds  that  there  is  no 
paving  process  necessary  to  procure  a  hardened  surface,  for 
his  wheels  rattle  over  the  pebbles  embedded  in  the  rock.  On 
the  sea-coast,  in  several  localities,  the  deposit  presents  strik- 
ing peculiarities  of  outline.  The  bluff  and  rounded  preci- 
pices stand  out  in  vast  masses,  that  affect  the  mural  form,  and 
present  few  of  the  minuter  angularities  of  the  primary  rocks. 
Here  and  there  a  square  buttress  of  huge  proportions  leans 
against  the  front  of  some  low-browed  crag,  that  seems  little 
to  need  any  such  support,  and  casts  a  length  of  shadow 
athwart  its  face.  There  opens  along  the  base  of  the  rock  a 
line  of  rounded,  shallow  caves,  or  what  seem  rather  the  open- 


196 


THE   OLD  KED  SANDSTONE. 


ings  of  caves  not  yet  dug,  and  which  testify  of  a  period  when 
the  sea  stood  about  thirty  feet  higher  on  our  coasts  than  at 
present.  A  multitude  of  stacks  and  tabular  masses  lie 
grouped  in  front,  perforated  often  by  squat,  heavy  arches ; 
and  stacks,  caverns,  buttresses,  crags,  and  arches,  are  all 
alike  mottled  over  by  the  thickly-set  and  variously  colored 
pebbles.  There  is  a  tract  of  scenery  of  this  strangely 
marked  character  in  the  neighborhood  of  Dunottar,  and  two 
other  similar  tracts  in  the  far  north,  where  the  hill  of  Nigg, 
in  Ross-shire,  declines  towards  the  Lias  deposit  in  the  Bay  of 
Shandwick,  and  where,  in  the  vicinity  of  Inverness,  a  line 
of  bold,  precipitous  coast  runs  between  the  pyramidal  wooded 
eminence  which  occupies  the  south-eastern  corner  of  Ross, 
and  the  tower-like  headlands  that  guard  the  entrance  of  the 
Bay  of  Munlochy.  In  the  latter  tract,  however,  the  conglom- 
erate is  much  less  cavernous  than  in  the  other  two. 

The  sea-coast  of  St.  Vigeans,  in  Forfarshire,  has  been 
long  celebrated  for  its  romantic  scenery  and  its  caves  ;  and 
though  it  belongs  rather  to  the  conglomerate  base  of  the  up- 
per formation  than  to  the  great  conglomerate  base  of  the 
lower,  it  is  marked,  from  the  nature  of  the  materials — ma- 
terials common  to  both  —  by  features  indistinguishable  from 
those  which  characterize  the  sea-coasts  of  the  older  deposit. 
Its  wall  of  precipices  averages  from  a  hundred  to  a  hundred 
and  eighty  feet  in  height  —  no  very  great  matter  compared 
with  some  of  our  northern  lines,  but  the  cliffs  make  up  for 
their  want  of  altitude  by  their  bold  and  picturesque  combina- 
tions of  form  ;  and  I  scarce  know  where  a  long  summer's 
day  could  well  be  passed  more  agreeably  than  among  their 
wild  and  solitary  recesses.  The  incessant  lashings  of  the  sea 
have  ground  them  down  into  shapes  the  most  fantastic.  Huge 
stacks,  that  stand  up  from  amid  the  breakers,  are  here  and 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


197 


there  perforated  by  round,  heavy-browed  arches,  and  cast  the 
morning  shadows  inland  athwart  the  cavern-hollowed  preci- 
pices behind.  The  never-ceasing  echoes  reply,  in  long  and 
gloomy  caves,  to  the  wild  tones  of  the  sea.  Here  a  bluff 
promontory  projects  into  the  deep,  green  water,  and  the  white 
foam,  in  times  of  tempest,  dashes  up  a  hundred  feet  against 
its  face.  There  a  narrow  strip  of  vegetation,  spangled  with 
wild  flowers,  intervenes  between  the  beach  and  the  foot  of  the 
cliffs  that  sweep  along  the  bottom  of  some  semicircular  bay  ; 
but  we  see,  from  the  rounded  caves  by  which  they  are  stud- 
ded, and  the  polish  which  has  blunted  their  lower  angularities, 
that  at  some  early  period  the  breakers  must  have  dashed  for 
ages  against  their  bases.  The  Gaylet  Pot,  a  place  of  inter- 
est, from  its  very  striking  appearance,  to  more  than  geologists, 
is  connected  with  one  of  the  deep-sea  promontories.  We 
see  an  oblong  hollow  in  the  centre  of  a  corn-field,  that  borders 
on  the  cliffs.  It  deepens  as  we  approach  it,  and  on  reaching 
the  edge  we  find  ourselves  standing  on  the  verge  of  a  precipice 
about  a  hundred  and  fifty  feet  in  depth,  and  see  the  waves 
dashing*  along  the  bottom.  On  descending  by  a  somewhat 
precarious  path,  we  find  that  a  long,  tunnel-like  cavern  com- 
municates with  the  sea,  and  mark,  through  the  deep  gloom  of 
the  passage,  the  sunlight  playing  beyond  ;  and  now  and  then 
a  white  sail  passing  the  opening,  as  if  flitting  across  the  field 
of  a  telescope.  The  Gaylet  Pot  seems  originally  to  have 
been  merely  a  deep,  straight  cave,  hollowed  in  the  line  of  a 
fault  by  the  waves  ;  and  it  owes  evidently  its  present  appear- 
ance to  the  falling  in  of  the  roof  for  about  a  hundred  yards, 
at  its  inner  extremity. 

We  pass  from  the  conglomerate  to  the  middle  and  upper 
beds  of  the  lower  formation,  and  find  scenery  of  a  different 
character  in  the  districts  in  which  they  prevail.    The  aspect  is 
17* 


198 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


less  bold  and  rugged,  and  affects  often  long  horizontal  lines, 
that  stretch  away  without  rise  or  depression,  amid  the  surround- 
ing inequalities  of  the  landscape  for  miles  and  leagues,  and 
that  decline  to  either  side,  like  roofs  of  what  the  architect 
would  term  a  low  pitch.  The  ridge  of  the  Leys  in  the  east- 
ern opening  of  the  Caledonian  Valley,  so  rectilinear  in  its 
outline,  and  so  sloping  in  its  sides,  presents  a  good  illustration 
of  this  peculiarity.  The  rectilinear  ridge  which  runs  from 
the  Southern  Sutor  of  Cromarty  far  into  the  interior  of  the 
country,  and  which  has  been  compared  in  a  former  chapter 
to  the  shaft  of  a  spear,  furnishes  another  illustration  equally 
apt.*  Where  the  sloping  sides  of  these  roof-like  ridges 
decline,  as  in  the  latter  instance,  towards  an  exposed  sea- 
coast,  we  find  the  slope  terminating  often  in  an  abrupt  line  of 
rock  dug  out  by  the  waves.  It  is  thus  a  roof  set  on  walls, 
and  furnished  with  eaves.  A  ditch  just  finished  by  the  labor- 
er presents  regularly  sloping  sides  ;  but  the  little  stream  that 
comes  running  through  gradually  widens  its  bed  by  digging 
furrows  into  the  slopes,  the  undermined  masses  fall  in  and  are 
swept  away,  and,  in  the  course  of  a  few  months,  the  sides  are 
no  longer  sloping,  but  abrupt.    And  such,  on  a  great  scale, 


*  The  valleys  which  separate  these  ridges  form  often  spacious  friths 
and  bays,  the  frequent  occurrence  of  which  in  the  Old  lied  Sandstone 
constitutes,  in  some  localities,  one  of  the  characteristics  of  the  system. 
Mark  in  a  map  of  the  north  of  Scotland,  how  closely  friths  and  estu- 
aries lie  crowded  together  between  the  counties  of  Sutherland  and  In- 
verness. In  a  line  of  coast  little  more  than  forty  miles  in  extent, 
there  occur  four  arms  of  the  sea  —  the  Friths  of  Cromarty,  Beauly, 
and  Dornoch,  and  the  Bay  of  Munlochy.  The  Frith  of  Tay  and  the 
Basin  of  Montrose  are  also  semi-marine  valleys  of  the  Old  Red  Sand- 
stone. Two  of  the  finest  harbors  in  Britain,  or  the  world,  belong  to  it 
—  Milford  Haven,  in  South  Wales,  and  the  Bay  of  Cromarty. 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


199 


has  been  the  process  through  which  coast-lines  that  were 
originally  paved  slopes  have  become  walls  of  precipices. 
The  waves  cut  first  through  the  outer  strata  ;  and  every 
stratum  thus  divided  comes  to  present  two  faces  —  a  perpen- 
dicular face  in  the  newly-formed  line  of  precipice,  and  another 
horizontal  face  lying  parallel  to  it,  along  the  shore.  One 
half  the  severed  stratum  seems  as  if  rising  out  of  the 
sea,  the  other  half  as  if  descending  from  the  hill  :  the 
geologist  who  walks  along  the  beach  finds  the  various  beds 
presented  in  duplicate — a  hill-bed  on  the  one  side,  and  a 
sea-bed  on  the  other.  There  occurs  a  very  interesting 
instance  of  this  arrangement  in  the  bold  line  of  coast  on  the 
northern  shore  of  the  Moray  Frith,  so  often  alluded  to  in  a 
previous  chapter,  as  extending  between  the  Southern  Sutor 
and  the  Hill  of  Eathie  ;  and  which  forms  the  wall  of  a  por- 
tion of  the  roof-like  ridge  last  described.  The  sea  first  broke 
in  a  long  line  through  strata  of  red  and  gray  shale,  next 
through  a  thick  bed  of  pale-yellow  stone,  then  through  a  con- 
tinuous bed  of  stratified  clays  and  nodular  limestone,  and, 
last  of  all,  through  a  bed,  thicker  than  any  of  the  others,  of 
indurated  red  sandstone.  The  line  of  cliffs  formed  in  this 
way  rises  abruptly  for  about  a  hundred  yards  on  the  one 
hand  ;  the  shore  stretches  out  for  more  than  double  the  same 
space  on  the  other  ;  on  both  sides  the  beds  exactly  correspond  ; 
and  to  ascend  in  the  line  of  the  strata  from  the  foot  of  the 
cliffs,  we  have  either  to  climb  the  hill,  or  to  pass  downwards  at 
low  ebb  to  the  edge  of  the  sea.  The  section  is  of  interest, 
not  only  from  the  numerous  organisms,  animal  and  vegetable, 
which  its  ichtbyolite  beds  contain,  but  from  the  illustration 
which  it  also  furnishes  of  denudation  to  a  vast  extent  from 
causes  still  in  active  operation.  A  line  of  precipices  a  hun- 
dred yards  in  height,  and  more  than  two  miles  in  length,  has 


200 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE 


been  dug  out  of  the  slope  by  the  slow  wear  of  the  waves,  in 
the  unreckoned  course  of  that  period  during  which  the 
present  sea  was  bounded  in  this  locality  by  the  existing  line 
of  coast.    (See  Frontispiece,  sect.  3.) 

I  know  not  a  more  instructive  walk  for  the  young  geologist 
than  that  furnished  by  the  two  miles  of  shore  along  which  this 
section  extends.  Years  of  examination  and  inquiry  would 
fail  to  exhaust  it.  It  presents  us,  I  have  said,  with  the  numer- 
ous organisms  of  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone  ;  it  presents 
us  also,  towards  its  western  extremity,  with  the  still  more 
numerous  organisms  of  the  Lower  and  Upper  Lias ;  nor  are 
the  inflections  and  faults  which  its  strata  exhibit  less  instruc- 
tive than  its  fossils  or  its  vast  denuded  hollow.  I  have  climbed 
along  its  wall  of  cliffs  during  the  height  of  a  tempestuous 
winter  tide,  when  waves  of  huge  volume,  that  had  begun  to 
gather  strength  under  the  night  of  the  Northern  Ocean,  were 
bursting  and  foaming  below ;  and  as  the  harder  pebbles,  up- 
lifted by  the  surge,  rolled  by  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands 
along  the  rocky  bottom,  and  the  work  of  denudation  went  on, 
I  have  thought  of  the  remote  past,  when  the  same  agents  had 
first  begun  to  grind  down  the  upper  strata,  whose  broken  edges 
now  projected  high  over  my  head  on  the  one  hand,  and  lay 
buried  far  under  the  waves  at  my  feet  on  the  other.  Almost 
all  mountain  chains  present  their  abrupter  escarpements  to  the 
sea,  though  separated  from  it  in  many  instances  by  hundreds 
of  miles  —  a  consequence,  it  is  probable,  of  a  similar  course 
of  denudation,  ere  they  had  attained  their  present  altitude,  or 
the  plains  at  their  feet  had  been  elevated  over  ' the  level  of 
the  ocean.  Had  a  rise  of  a  hundred  feet  taken  place  in  this 
northern  district  in  the  days  of  Coesar,  the  whole  upper  part 
of  the  Moray  Frith  would  have  been  laid  dry,  and  it  would 
now  have  seemed  as  inexplicable  that  this  roof-like  ridge 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


201 


should  present  so  rugged  a  line  of  wall  to  the  distant  sea,  as 
that  the  Western  Ghauts  of  India  should  invariably  turn  their 
steepest  declivities  to  the  basin  of  the  Indian  Ocean,  or  that, 
from  the  Arctic  Circle  to  the  southern  extremity  of  Patagonia, 
the  huge  mountain-chain  of  America  should  elevate  its  dizzy 
precipices  in  the  line  of  the  Pacific. 

Let  us  take  another  view  of  this  section.  It  stretches  be- 
tween two  of  the  granitic  knobs  or  wedges  to  which  I  have 
had  such  frequent  occasion  to  refer — the  Southern  Sutor  of 
Cromarty,  and  the  Hill  of  Eathie  ;  and  the  edges  of  the  strata 
somewhat  remind  one  of  the  edges  of  a  bundle  of  deals  laid 
flatways  on  two  stones,  and  bent  towards  the  middle  by  their 
own  weight.  But  their  more  brittle  character  is  shown  by 
the  manner  in  which  their  ends  are  broken  and  uptilted  against 
the  granitic  knobs  on  which  they  seem  to  rest ;  and  towards 
the  western  knob  the  whole  bundle  has  been  broken  across 
from  below,  and  the  opening  occasioned  by  the  fracture  forms 
a  deep,  savage  ravine,  skirted  by  precipices,  that  runs  far  into 
the  interior,  and  exhibits  the  lower  portion  of  the  system  to 
well  nigh  its  base.  Will  the  reader  spend  a  very  few  minutes 
in  exploring  the  solitary  recesses  of  this  rocky  trench — it 
matters  not  whether  as  a  scene-hunter  or  a  geologist  ?  WTe 
pass  onwards  along  the  beach  through  the  middle  line  of  the 
denuded  hollow.  The  natural  rampart  that  rises  on  the  right 
ascends  towards  the  uplands  in  steep  slopes,  lined  horizontally 
by  sheep-walks,  and  fretted  by  mossy  knolls,  and  churchyard- 
like ridges  —  or  juts  out  into  abrupt  and  weathered  crags, 
crusted  with  lichens  and  festooned  with  ivy — or  recedes  into 
bosky  hollows,  roughened  by  the  sloe-thorn,  the  wild-rose, 
and  the  juniper  ;  on  the  left  the  wide  extent  of  the  Moray 
Frith  stretches  out  to  the  dim  horizon,  with  its  vein-like  cur- 
rents, and  its  undulating  lines  of  coast ;  while  before  us  we 


202 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


see,  far  in  the  distance,  the  blue  vista  of  the  Great  Valley, 
with  its  double  wall  of  jagged  and  serrated  hills,  and  directly 
in  the  opening,  the  gray,  diminished  spires  of  Inverness.  We 
reach  a  brown,  mossy  stream,  of  just  volume  enough  to  sweep 
away  the  pebbles  and  shells  that  have  been  strewed  in  its 
course  by  the  last  tide ;  and  see,  on  turning  a  sudden  angle, 
the  precipices  cleft  to  their  base  by  the  ravine  that  has  yielded 
its  waters  a  passage  from  the  interior. 

We  enter  along  the  bed  of  the  stream.  A  line  of  mural 
precipices  rises  on  either  hand  —  here  advancing  in  ponderous 
overhanging  buttresses,  there  receding  into  deep,  damp  recess- 
es, tapestried  with  ivy,  and  darkened  with  birch  and  hazel. 
A  powerful  spring,  charged  with  lime,  comes  pouring  by  a 
hundred  different  threads  over  the  rounded  brow  of  a  beetling 
crag,  and  the  decaying  vegetation  around  it  is  hardening  into 
stone.  The  cliffs  vary  their  outline  at  every  step,  as  if  assum- 
ing in  succession,  all  the  various  combinations  of  form  that 
constitute  the  wild  and  the  picturesque  ;  and  the  pale  hues  of 
the  stone  seem,  when  brightened  by  the  sun,  the  very  tints  a 
painter  would  choose  to  heighten  the  effect  of  his  shades,  or  to 
contrast  most  delicately  with  the  luxuriant  profusion  of  bushes 
and  flowers  that  wave  over  the  higher  shelves  and  crannies. 
A  colony  of  swallows  have  built  from  time  immemorial  under 
the  overhanging  strata  of  one  of  the  loftier  precipices  ;  the  fox 
and  badger  harbor  in  the  clefts  of  the  steeper  and  more  inac- 
cessible banks.  As  we  proceed,  the  deli  becomes  wilder 
and  more  deeply  wooded  ;  the  stream  frets  and  toils  at  our 
feet —  here  leaping  over  an  opposing  ridge  ; —  there  struggling 
in  a  pool — yonder  escaping  to  the  light  from  under  some 
broken  fragment  of  cliff.  There  is  a  richer  profusion  of 
flowers,  a  thicker  mantling  of  ivy  and  honeysuckle  ;  and  after 
passing  a  semicircular  inflection  of  the  bank,  that  waves 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


203 


from  base  to  summit  with  birch,  hazel,  and  hawthorn,  we 
find  the  passage  shut  up  by  a  perpendicular  wall  of  rock 
about  thirty  feet  in  height,  over  which  the  stream  precipitates 
itself,  in  a  slender  column  of  foam,  into  a  dark,  mossy  basin. 
The  long  arms  of  an  intermingled  clump  of  birches  and  ha- 
zels stretch  half  way  across,  tripling  with  their  shade  the  ap- 
parent depth  of  the  pool,  and  heightening  in  an  equal  ratio 
the  white  flicker  of  the  cascade,  and  the  effect  of  the  bright 
patches  of  foam  which,  flung  from  the  rock,  incessantly 
revolve  on  the  eddy. 

Mark  now  the  geology  of  the  ravine.  For  about  half  way 
from  where  it  opens  to  the  shore,  to  where  the  path  is  ob- 
structed by  the  deep  mossy  pool  and  the  cascade,  its  precip- 
itous sides  consist  of  three  bars  or  stories.  There  is  first, 
reckoning  from  the  stream  upwards,  a  broad  bar  of  pale  red  ; 
then  a  broad  bar  of  pale  lead  color  ;  last  and  highest,  a  broad 
bar  of  pale  yellow ;  and  above  all,  there  rises  a  steep  green 
slope,  that  continues  its  ascent  till  it  gains  the  top  of  the 
ridge.  The  middle,  lead-colored  bar  is  an  ichthyolite  bed,  a 
place  of  sepulture  among  the  rocks,  where  the  dead  lie  by 
myriads.  The  yellow  bar  above  is  a  thick  bed  of  saliferous 
sandstone.  We  may  see  the  projections  on  which  the  sun  has 
beat  most  powerfully  covered  with  a  white  crust  of  salt ;  and 
it  may  be  deemed  worthy  of  remark,  in  connection  with  the 
circumstance,  that  its  shelves  and  crannies  are  richer  in  vege- 
tation than  those  of  the  other  bars.  The  pale  red  bar  below 
is  composed  of  a  coarser  and  harder  sandstone,  which  forms 
an  upper  moiety  of  the  arenaceous  portion  of  the  great  con- 
glomerate. Now  mark,  further,  that  on  reaching  a  midway 
point  between  the  beach  and  the  cascade,  this  triple-barred 
line  of  precipices  abruptly  terminates,  and  a  line  of  preci- 
pices of  coarse  conglomerate  as  abruptly  begins.    I  occa- 


204 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


sionally  pass  a  continuous  wall,  built  at  two  different  periods, 
and  composed  of  two  different  kinds  of  materials  :  the  one 
half  of  it  is  formed  of  white  sandstone,  the  other  half  of  a 
dark-colored  basalt ;  and  the  place  where  the  sandstone  ends 
and  the  basalt  begins  is  marked  by  a  vertical  line,  on  the  one 
side  of  which  all  is  dark  colored,  while  all  is  of  a  light  color 
on  the  other.  Equally  marked  and  abrupt  is  the  vertical  line 
which  separates  the  triple-barred  from  the  conglomerate  cliffs 
of  the  ravine  of  Eathie.  The  ravine  itself  may  be  described 
as  a  fault  in  the  strata ;  but  here  is  a  fault,  lying  at  right  an- 
gles with  it,  on  a  much  larger  scale  :  the  great  conglomerate 
on  which  the  triple  bars  rest  has  been  cast  up  at  least  two 
hundred  feet,  and  placed  side  by  side  with  them.  And  yet 
the  surface  above  bears  no  trace  of  the  catastrophe.  Denud- 
ing agencies  of  even  greater  power  than  those  which  have 
hollowed  out  the  cliffs  of  the  neighboring  coast,  or  whose 
operations  have  been  prolonged  through  periods  of  even  more 
extended  duration,  have  ground  down  the  projected  line  of 
the  upheaved  mass  to  the  level  of  the  undisturbed  masses  be- 
side it.  Now,  mark  further,  as  we  ascend  the  ravine,  that 
the  grand  cause  of  the  disturbance  appears  to  illustrate,  as  it 
were,  and  that  very  happily,  the  manner  in  which  the  fault 
was  originally  produced.  The  precipice,  over  which  the 
stream  leaps  at  one  bound  into  the  mossy  hollow,  is  com- 
posed of  granitic  gneiss,  and  seems  evidently  to  have  intrud- 
ed itself,  with  much  disturbance,  among  the  surrounding 
conglomerate  and  sandstones.  A  few  hundred  yards  higher 
up  the  dell,  there  is  another  much  loftier  precipice  of  gneiss, 
round  which  we  find  the  traces  of  still  greater  disturbance  ; 
and,  higher  still,  yet  a  third  abrupt  precipice  of  the  same 
rock.  The  gneiss  rose,  trap-like,  in  steps,  and  carried  up  the 
sandstone  before  it  in  detached  squares.    Each  step  has  its 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


205 


answering  fault  immediately  over  it ;  and  the  fault  where  the 
triple  bars  and  the  conglomerate  meet  is  merely  a  fault  whose 
step  of  granitic  gneiss  stopped  short  ere  it  reached  the  sur- 
face. But  the  accompanying  section  (see  Frontispiece,  sect. 
4)  will  better  illustrate  the  geology  of  this  interesting  ravine, 
than  it  can  be  illustrated  by  any  written  description.  I  may 
remark,  ere  taking  leave  of  it,  however,  that  its  conglomer- 
ates exhibit  a  singularly  large  amount  of  false  stratification  at 
an  acute  angle  with  the  planes  of  the  real  strata,  and  that  a 
bed  of  mouldering  sandstone  near  the  base  of  the  system 
may  be  described,  from  its  fissile  character,  as  a  tilestone.* 


*  There  is  a  natural  connection,  it  is  said,  between  wild  scenes  and 
wild  legends  ;  and  some  of  the  traditions  connected  with  this  roman- 
tic and  solitary  dell  illustrate  the  remark.  Till  a  comparatively  late 
period,  it  was  known  at  many  a  winter  fireside  as  a  favorite  haunt  of 
the  fairies  — the  most  poetical  of  all  our  old  tribes  of  spectres,  and  at 
one  time  one  of  the  most  popular.  I  have  conversed  with  an  old 
woman,  who,  when  a  very  little  girl,  had  seen  myriads  of  them  dan- 
cing, as  the  sun  was  setting,  on  the  further  edge  of  the  dell ;  and  with 
a  still  older  man,  who  had  the  temerity  to  offer  one  of  them  a  pinch 
of  snuff  at  the  foot  of  the  cascade.  Nearly  a  mile  from  where  the 
ravine  opens  to  the  sea,  it  assumes  a  gentler  and  more  pastoral  char- 
acter ;  the  sides,  no  longer  precipitous,  descend  towards  the  stream  in 
green,  sloping  banks ;  and  a  beaten  path,  which  runs  between  Crom- 
arty and  Rosemarkie,  winds  down  the  one  side  and  ascends  the  other. 
More  than  sixty  years  ago,  one  Donald  Calder,  a  Cromarty  shop- 
keeper, wras  journeying  by  this  path  shortly  after  nightfall.  The 
moon,  at  full,  had  j  list  risen ;  but  there  was  a  silvery  mist  sleeping  on 
the  lower  grounds,  that  obscured  her  light ;  and  the  dell,  in  all  its 
extent,  was  so  overcharged  by  the  vapor,  that  it  seemed  an  immense, 
overflooded  river  winding  through  the  landscape.  Donald  had 
reached  its  farther  edge,  and  could  hear  the  rush  of  the  stream  from 
the  deep  obscurity  of  the  abyss  below,  when  there  rose  from  the  op- 
posite side  a  strain  of  the  most  delightful  music  he  had  ever  heard. 
18 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


I  know  comparatively  little  of  the  scenery  of  the  middle, 
or  Cornstone  formation.  Its  features  in  England  are  bold 
and  striking;  in  Scotland,  of  a  tamer  and  more  various  char- 
acter. The  Den  of  Balruddery  is  a  sweet,  wooded  dell, 
marked  by  no  characteristic  peculiarities.  Many  of  the 
seeming  peculiarities  of  the  formation  in  Forfarshire,  as  in 
Fife,  may  be  traced  to  the  disturbing  trap.  The  appearance 
exhibited  is  that  of  uneven  plains,  that  rise  and  fall  in  long, 
undulating  ridges — an  appearance  which  any  other  member 
of  the  system  might  have  presented.  We  find  the  upper  for- 
mation associated  with  scenery  of  great,  though  often  wild 


He  staid  and  listened.  The  words  of  a  song,  of  such  simple  beauty 
that  they  seemed  without  effort  to  stamp  themselves  on  his  memory, 
came  wafted  in  the  music  ;  and  the  chorus,  in  which  a  thousand  tiny 
voices  seemed  to  join,  was  a  familiar  address  to  himself — "Hey, 
Donald  Calder  ;  ho,  Donald  Calder."  u  There  are  nane  of  my  Navi- 
ty  acquaintance,"  thought  Donald,  "who  sing  like  that.  Wha  can 
it  be  ? "  He  descended  into  the  cloud ;  but  in  passing  the  little 
stream  the  music  ceased ;  and  on  reaching  the  spot  on  which  the 
singer  had  seemed  stationed,  he  saw  only  a  bare  bank  sinking  into  a 
solitary  moor,  unvaried  by  either  bush  or  hollow  in  which  the  musi- 
cian might  have  lain  concealed.  He  had  hardly  time,  however,  to 
estimate  the  marvels  of  the  case,  when  the  music  again  struck  up, 
but  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  dell,  and  apparently  from  the  very 
knoll  on  which  he  had  so  recently  listened  to  it.  The  conviction  that 
it  could  not  be  other  than  supernatural  overpowered  him  ;  and  he 
hurried  homewards  under  the  influence  of  a  terror  so  extreme,  that, 
unfortunately  for  our  knowledge  of  fairy  literature,  it  had  the  effect 
of  obliterating  from  his  memory  every  part  of  the  song  except  the 
chorus.  The  sun  rose  as  he  reached  Cromarty ;  and  he  found  that, 
instead  of  having  lingered  at  the  edge  of  the  dell  for  only  a  few  min- 
utes—  and  the  time  had  seemed  no  longer  —  he  had  spent  beside  it 
the  greater  part  of  the  night. 

The  fairies  have  deserted  the  Burn  of  Eathie  ;  but  we  have  proof, 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


207 


beauty ;  and  nowhere  is  this  more  strikingly  the  case  than  in 
the  province  of  Moray,  where  it  leans  against  the  granitic 
gneiss  of  the  uplands,  and  slopes  towards  the  sea  in  long  plains 
of  various  fertility,  deep  and  rich,  as  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Elgin,  or  singularly  bleak  and  unproductive,  as  in  the  far- 
famed  "  heath  near  Forres."    Let  us  select  the  scene  where 


quite  as  conclusive  as  the  nature  of  the  case  admits,  that  when  they 
ceased  to  be  seen  there  it  would  have  been  vain  to  have  looked  for 
them  any  where  else.  There  is  a  cluster  of  turf-built  cottages 
grouped  on  the  southern  side  of  the  ravine  ;  a  few  scattered  knolls, 
and  a  long,  partially  wooded  hollow,  that  seems  a  sort  of  covered 
way  leading  to  the  recesses  of  the  dell,  interpose  between  them  and 
the  nearer  edge,  and  the  hill  rises  behind.  On  a  Sabbath  morning, 
nearly  sixty  years  ago,  the  inmates  of  this  little  hamlet  had  all  gone 
to  church,  all  except  a  herd-boy  and  a  little  girl,  his  sister,  who  were 
lounging  beside  one  of  the  cottages  ;  when,  just  as  the  shadow  of  the 
garden  dial  had  fallen  on  the  line  of  noon,  they  saw  a  long  cavalcade 
ascending  out  of  the  ravine  through  the  wooded  hollow.  It  winded 
among  the  knolls  and  bushes  ;  and,  turning  round  the  northern  ga- 
ble of  the  cottage  beside  which  the  sole  spectators  of  the  scene  were 
stationed,  began  to  ascend  the  eminence  towards  the  south.  The 
horses  were  shaggy,  diminutive  things,  speckled  dun  and  gray ;  the 
riders,  stunted,  misgrown,  ugly  creatures,  attired  in  antique  jerkins 
of  plaid,  long  gray  cloaks,  and  little  red  caps,  from  under  which  their 
wild,  uncombed  locks  shot  out  over  their  cheeks  and  foreheads. 
The  boy  and  his  sister  stood  gazing  in  utter  dismay  and  astonishment, 
as  rider  after  rider,  each  one  more  uncouth  and  dwarfish  than  the 
one  that  had  preceded  it,  passed  the  cottage  and  disappeared  among 
the  brushwood,  which  at  that  period  covered  the  hill,  until  at  length 
the  entire  rout,  except  the  last  rider,  who  lingered  a  few  yards  be- 
hind the  others,  had  gone  by.  "  What  are  ye,  little  mannie  ?  and 
where  are  ye  going  ?  "  inquired  the  boy,  his  curiosity  getting  the 
better  of  his  fears  and  his  prudence.  "Not  of  the  race  of  Adam," 
said  the  creature,  turning  for  a  moment  in  his  saddle;  "the  People 
of  Peace  shall  never  more  be  seen  in  Scotland." 


208 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


the  Findhorn,  after  hurrying  over  ridge  and  shallow,  amid 
combinations  of  rock  and  wood,  wildly  picturesque  as  any 
the  kingdom  affords,  enters  on  the  lower  country,  with  a 
course  less  headlong,  through  a  vast  trench  scooped  in  the 
pale  red  sandstone  of  the  upper  formation.  For  miles  above 
the  junction  of  the  newer  and  older  rocks  the  river  has  been 
toiling  in  a  narrow  and  uneven  channel,  between  two  upright 
walls  of  hard  gray  gneiss,  thickly  traversed,  in  every  com- 
plexity of  pattern,  by  veins  of  a  light  red,  large  grained 
granite.  The  gneiss  abruptly  terminates,  but  not  so  the  wall 
of  precipices.  A  lofty  front  of  gneiss  is  joined  to  a  lofty 
front  of  sandstone,  like  the  front  walls  of  two  adjoining 
houses ;  and  the  broken  and  uptilted  strata  of  the  softer  stone 
show  that  the  older  and  harder  rocks  must  have  invaded  it 
from  below.  A  little  farther  down  the  stream,  the  strata  as- 
sume what  seems,  in  a  short  extent  of  frontage,  a  horizontal 
position,  like  courses  of  ashlar  in  a  building,  but  which,  when 
viewed  in  the  range,  is  found  to  incline  at  a  low  angle  towards 
the  distant  sea.  Here,  as  in  many  other  localities,  the  }^oung 
geologist  must  guard  against  the  conclusion,  that  the  rock  is 
necessarily  low  in  the  geological  scale  which  he  finds  resting 
against  the  gneiss.  The  gneiss,  occupying  a  very  different 
place  from  that  on  which  it  was  originally  formed,  has  been 
thrust  into  close  neighborhood  with  widely  separated  forma- 
tions. The  great  conglomerate  base  of  the  system  rests  over 
it  in  Orkney,  Caithness,  Ross,  Cromarty,  and  Inverness  ;  and 
there  is  no  trace  of  what  should  be  the  intervening  gran* 
wacke.  The  upper  formation  of  the  system  leans  upon  it 
here.  We  find  the  Lower  Lias  uptilted  against  it  at  the  Hill 
of  Eathie  —  the  great  Oolite  on  the  eastern  coast  of  Suther- 
land ;  and  as  the  flints  and  chalk  fossils  of  Banff  and  Aber- 
deen are  found  lying  immediately  over  it  in  these  counties, 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


209 


it  is  probable  that  the  denuded  members  of  the  Cretaceous 
group  once  rested  upon  it  there.  The  fact  that  a  deposit 
should  be  found  lying  in  contact  with  the  gneiss,  furnishes  no 
argument  for  the  great  antiquity  or  the  fundamental  charac- 
ter of  that  deposit;  and  it  were  well  that  the  geologist  who 
sets  himself  to  estimate  the  depth  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone, 
or  the  succession  of  its  various  formations,  should  keep  the 
circumstance  in  view.  That  may  be  in  reality  but  a  small 
and  upper  portion  of  the  system  which  he  finds  bounded  by 
the  gneiss  on  its  under  side,  and  by  the  diluvium  on  its  upper. 

We  stand  on  a  wooded  eminence,  that  sinks  perpendicu- 
larly into  the  river  on  the  left,  in  a  mural  precipice,  and  de- 
scends with  a  billowy  swell  into  the  broad,  fertile  plain  in 
front,  as  if  the  uplands  were  breaking  in  one  vast  wave  upon 
the  low  country.  There  is  a  patch  of  meadow  on  the  oppo- 
site side  of  the  stream,  shaded  by  a  group  of  ancient  trees, 
gnarled  and  mossy,  and  with  half  their  topmost  branches 
dead  and  white  as  the  bones  of  a  skeleton.  We  look  down 
upon  them  from  an  elevation  so  commanding,  that  their  up- 
permost twigs  seem  on  well  nigh  the  same  level  with  their 
interlaced  and  twisted  roots,  washed  bare  on  the  bank  edge 
by  the  winter  floods.  A  colony  of  herons  has  built  from  time 
immemorial  among  the  branches.  There  are  trees  so  laden 
with  nests  that  the  boughs  bend  earthwards  on  every  side, 
like  the  boughs  of  orchard  trees  in  autumn  ;  and  the  bleached 
and  feathered  masses  which  they  bear  —  the  cradles  of  suc- 
ceeding generations  —  glitter  gray  through  the  foliage  in  con- 
tinuous groups,  as  if  each  tree  bore  on  its  single  head  all  the 
wigs  of  the  Court  of  Session.  The  solitude  is  busy  with  the 
occupations  and  enjoyments  of  instinct.  The  birds,  tall  and 
stately,  stand  by  troops  in  the  shallows,  or  wade  warily,  as 
the  fish  glance  by,  to  the  edge  of  the  current,  or  rising,  with 
18* 


210 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


the  slow  flap  of  wing  and  sharp  creak  peculiar  to  the  tribe, 
drop  suddenly  into  their  nests.  The  great  forest  of  Darna- 
way  stretches  beyond,  feathering  a  thousand  knolls,  that  re- 
flect a  colder  and  grayer  tint  as  they  recede,  and  lessen,  and 
present  ou  the  horizon  a  billowy  line  of  blue.  The  river 
brawls  along  under  pale  red  cliffs,  wooded  a-top.  It  is  through 
a  vast  burial-yard  that  it  has  cut  its  way  —  a  field  of  the 
dead  so  ancient,  that  the  sepulchres  of  Thebes  and  Luxor  are 
but  of  the  present  day  in  comparison  —  resting-places  for 
the  recently  departed,  whose  funerals  are  but  just  over. 
These  mouldering  strata  are  charged  with  remains,  scattered 
and  detached  as  those  of  a  churchyard,  but  not  less  entire  in 
their  parts  —  occipital  bones,  jaws,  teeth,  spines,  scales  —  the 
dust  and  rubbish  of  a  departed  creation.  The  cliffs  sink  as 
the  plain  flattens,  and  green,  sloping  banks  of  diluvium  take 
their  place  ;  but  they  again  rise  in  the  middle  distance  into 
an  abrupt  and  lofty  promontory,  that,  stretching  like  an  im- 
mense rib  athwart  the  level  country,  projects  far  into  the 
stream,  and  gives  an  angular  inflection  to  its  course.  There 
ascends  from  the  apex  a  thin,  blue  column  of  smoke  —  that  of 
a  lime-kiln.  That  ridge  and  promontory  are  composed  of  the 
thick  limestone  band,  which,  in  Moray  as  in  Fife,  separates  the 
pale  red  from  the  pale  yellow  beds  of  the  Upper  Old  Red 
Sandstone  ;  and  the  flattened  tracts  on  both  sides  show  how 
much  better  it  has  resisted  the  denuding  agencies  than  either 
the  yellow  strata  that  rests  over  it,  or  the  pale  red  strata 
which  it  overlies. 


THE  OLD  KED  SANDSTONE. 


211 


CHAPTER  XII. 

The  two  Aspects  in  which.  Matter  can  be  viewed ;  Space  and  Time. 
—  Geological  History  of  the  Earlier  Periods.  —  The  Cambrian  Sys- 
tem, —  Its  Annelids.  —  The  Silurian  System.  —  Its  Corals,  Encrin- 
ites,  Molluscs,  and  Trilobites.  —  Its  Fish.  —  These  of  a  high  Order, 
and  called  into  Existence  apparently  by  Myriads.  —  Opening  Scene 
in  the  History  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  a  Scene  of  Tempest.  — 
Represented  by  the  Great  Conglomerate.  —  Red  a  prevailing  Color 
among  the  Ancient  Rocks  contained  in  this  Deposit.  —  Amazing 
Abundance  of  Animal  Life.  —  Exemplified  by  a  Scene  in  the  Her- 
ring Fishery.  —  Platform  of  Death.  —  Probable  Cause  of  the  Catas- 
trophe which  rendered  it  such. 

"  There  are  only  two  different  aspects,"  says  Dr.  Thomas 
Brown,  u  in  which  matter  can  be  viewed.  We  may  consider 
it  simply  as  it  exists,  in  space,  or  as  it  exists  in  time.  As  it 
exists  in  space  we  inquire  into  its  composition,  or,  in  other 
words,  endeavor  to  discover  what  are  the  elementary  bodies 
that  coexist  in  the  space  which  it  occupies ;  as  it  exists  in 
time,  we  inquire  into  its  susceptibilities  or  its  powers,  or,  in 
other  words,  endeavor  to  trace  all  the  various  changes  which 
have  already  passed  over  it,  or  of  which  it  may  yet  become 
the  subject." 

Hitherto  I  have  very  much  restricted  myself  to  the  consid- 
eration of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  as  it  exists  in  space  —  to 
the  consideration  of  it  as  we  now  find  it.  I  shall  now  attempt 
presenting  it  to  the  reader  as  it  existed  in  time —  during  the 
succeeding  periods  of  its  formation,  and  when  its  existences 
lived  and  moved  as  the  denizens  of  primeval  oceans.  It  is 
one  thing  to  describe  the  appearance  of  a  forsaken  and  des- 


212 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


ert  country,  with  its  wide  wastes  of  unprofitable  sand,  its 
broken  citadels  and  temples,  its  solitary  battle-plains,  and  its 
gloomy  streets  of  caverned  and  lonely  sepulchres  ;  and  quite 
another  to  record  its  history  during  its  days  of  smiling  fields, 
populous  cities,  busy  trade,  and  monarchical  splendor.  We 
pass  from  the  dead  to  the  living  —  from  the  cemetery,  with 
its  high  piles  of  mummies  and  its  vast  heaps  of  bones,  to  the 
ancient  city,  full  of  life  and  animation  in  all  its  streets  and 
dwellings. 

Two  great  geological  periods  have  already  come  to  their 
close  ;  and  the  floor  of  a  widely-spread  ocean,  to  which  we 
can  affix  no  limits,  and  of  whose  shores  or  their  inhabitants 
nothing  is  yet  known,  is  occupied  to  the  depth  of  many  thou- 
sand feet  by  the  remains  of  bygone  existences.  Of  late,  the 
geologist  has  learned  from  Murchison  to  distinguish  the  rocks 
of  these  two  periods  —  the  lower  as  those  of  the  Cambrian, 
the  upper  as  those  of  the  Silurian  group.  The  lower  —  rep- 
resentative of  the  first  glimmering  twilight  of  being  —  of 
a  dawn  so  feeble  that  it  may  seem  doubtful  whether  in  reality 
the  gloom  had  lightened  —  must  still  be  regarded  as  a  period 
of  uncertainty.  Its  ripple-marked  sandstones,  and  its  half 
coherent  accumulations  of  dark-colored  strata,  which  decom- 
pose into  mud,  show  that  every  one  of  its  many  plains  must 
have  formed  in  succession  an  upper  surface  of  the  bottom  of 
the  sea  ;  but  it  remains  for  future  discoverers  to  determine 
regarding  the  shapes  of  life  that  burrowed  in  its  ooze,  or  ca- 
reered through  the  incumbent  waters.  In  one  locality  it 
would  seem  as  if  a  few  worms  had  crawled  to  the  surface, 
and  left  their  involved  and  tortuous  folds  doubtfully  impressed 
on  the  stone.  Some  of  them  resemble  miniature  cables,  care- 
lessly coiled ;  others,  furnished  with  what  seem  numerous 
legs,  remind  us  of  the  existing  Nereid ina  of  our  sandy 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


213 


shores  —  those  red-blooded,  many-legged  worms,  resembling 
elongated  centipedes,  that  wriggle  with  such  activity  among 
the  mingled  mud  and  water,  as  we  turn  over  the  stones  under 
which  they  had  sheltered.  Were  creatures  such  as  these  the 
lords  of  this  lower  ocean  ?  Did  they  enter  first  on  the  stage, 
in  that  great  drama  of  being  in  which  poets  and  philosophers, 
monarchs  and  mighty  conquerors,  were  afterwards  to  mingle 
as  actors  ?  Does  the  reader  remember  that  story  in  the  Ara- 
bia?! Nights,  in  which  the  battle  of  the  magicians  is  described  ? 
At  an  early  stage  of  the  combat  a  little  worm  creeps  over  the 
pavement ;  at  its  close  two  terrible  dragons  contend  in  an 
atmosphere  of  fire.  But  even  the  worms  of  the  Cambrian 
System  can  scarce  be  regarded  as  established.  The  evidence 
respecting  their  place  and  their  nature  must  still  be  held  as 
involved  in  some  such  degree  of  doubt  as  attaches  to  the 
researches  of  the  antiquary,  when  engaged  in  tracing  what 
their  remains  much  resemble  —  the  involved  sculpturings  of 
some  Runic  obelisk,  weathered  by  the  storms  of  a  thousand 
winters.  There  is  less  of  doubt,  however,  regarding  the 
existences  of  the  upper  group  of  rocks — the  Silurian. 

The  depth  of  this  group,  as  estimated  by  Mr.  Murchison,  is 
equal  to  double  the  height  of  our  highest  Scottish  mountains; 
and  four  distinct  platforms  of  being  range  in  it,  the  one  over 
the  other,  like  stories  in  a  building.  Life  abounded  on  all 
these  platforms,  and  in  shapes  the  most  wonderful.  The  pe- 
culiar encrinites  of  the  group  rose  in  miniature  forests,  and 
spread  forth  their  sentient  petals  by  millions  and  tens  of 
millions  amid  the  waters  ;  vast  ridges  of  corals  peopled 
by  their  innumerable  builders, — numbers  without  number, 
—  rose  high  amid  the  shallows ;  the  chambered  shells  had 
become  abundant  —  the  simpler  testacea  still  more  so  ;  ex- 
tinct forms  of  the  graptolite,  or  sea-pen,  existed  by  myriads ; 


214 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


and  the  formation  had  a  class  of  creatures  in  advance  of  the 
many-legged  annelids  of  the  other.  It  had  its  numerous  family 
of  trilobites,  —  crustaceans  nearly  as  high  in  the  scale  as  the 
common  crab,  —  creatures  with  crescent-shaped  heads,  and 
jointed  bodies,  and  wonderfully  constructed  eyes,  which,  like  the 
eyes  of  the  bee  and  the  butterfly,  had  the  cornea  cut  into  facets 
resembling  those  of  a  multiplying  glass.  Is  the  reader  ac- 
quainted with  the  form  of  the  common  Chiton  of  our  shores 
—  the  little  boat-shaped  shell-fish,  that  adheres  to  stones  and 
rocks  like  the  limpet,  but  which  differs  from  every  variety  of 
limpet,  inbearing  as  its  covering  a  jointed,  not  a  continuous  shell? 
Suppose  a  chiton  with  two  of  its  terminal  joints  cut  away,  and  a 
single  plate  of  much  the  same  shape  and  size,  but  with  two  eyes 
near  the  centre,  substituted  instead,  and  the  animal,  in  form  at 
least,  would  be  no  longer  a  chiton,  but  a  trilobite.  There  are 
appearances,  too,  which  lead  to  the  inference  that  the  habits 
of  the  two  families,  though  representing  different  orders  of 
being,  may  not  have  been  very  unlike.  The  chiton  attaches 
itself  to  the  rock  by  a  muscular  sucker  or  foot,  which,  extend- 
ing vent  rally  along  its  entire  length,  resembles  that  of  the 
slug  or  the  snail,  and  enables  it  to  crawl  like  them,  but  still 
more  slowly,  by  a  succession  of  adhesions.  The  locomotive 
powers  of  the  trilobite  seem  to  have  been  little  superior  to 
those  of  the  chiton.  If  furnished  with  legs  at  all,  it  must 
have  been  with  soft  rudimentary  membranaceous  legs,  little 
fitted  for  walking  with  ;  and  it  seems  quite  as  probable,  from 
the  peculiarly  shaped  under  margin  of  its  shell,  formed,  like 
that  of  the  chiton,  for  adhering  to  flat  surfaces,  that,  like  the 
slug  and  .the  snail,  it  was  unfurnished  with  legs  of  any  kind, 
and  crept  on  the  abdomen.  The  vast  conglomerations  of 
trilobites  for  which  the  Silurian  rocks  are  remarkable,  are 
regarded  as  further  evidence  of  a  sedentary  condition,  Like 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


215 


Ostrece,  Chitones,  and  other  sedentary  animals,  they  seemed 
to  have  adhered  together  in  vast  clusters,  trilobite  over  trilo- 
bite,  in  the  hollows  of  submarine  precipices,  or  on  the  flat, 
muddy  bottom  below.  And  such  were  the  master  existences 
of  three  of  the  four  Silurian  platforms,  and  of  the  greater 
part  of  the  fourth,  if,  indeed,  we  may  not  regard  the  cham- 
bered molluscs,  their  contemporaries,  —  creatures  with  their 
arms  clustered  round  their  heads,  and  with  a  nervous  system 
composed  of  a  mere  knotted  cord,  —  as  equally  high  in  the 
scale.  We  rise  to  the  topmost  layers  of  the  system, —  to 
an  upper  gallery  of  its  highest  platform,  —  and  find  nature 
mightily  in  advance. 

Another  and  superior  order  of  existences  had  sprung  into 
being  at  the  fiat  of  the  Creator — creatures  with  the  brain 
lodged  in  the  head,  and  the  spinal  cord  enclosed  in  a  vertebrated 
column.  In  the  period  of  the  Upper  Silurian,  fish  properly  so 
called,  and  of  very  perfect  organization,  had  become  denizens 
of  the  watery  element,  and  had  taken  precedence  of  the  crusta- 
cean, as,  at  a  period  long  previous,  the  crustacean  had  taken  pre- 
cedence of  the  annelid.  In  what  form  do  these,  the  most  ancient 
beings  of  their  class,  appear  ?  As  cartilaginous  fishes  of  the 
higher  order.  Some  of  them  were  furnished  with  bony  pal- 
ates, and  squat,  firmly-based  teeth,  well  adapted  for  crushing 
the  stone-cased  zoophytes  and  shells  of  the  period,  fragments 
of  which  occur  in  their  faecal  remains  ;  some  with  teeth  that, 
like  those  of  the  fossil  sharks  of  the  later  formations,  resem- 
ble lines  of  miniature  pyramids,  larger  and  smaller  alternat- 
ing ;  some  with  teeth  sharp,  thin,  and  so  deeply  serrated  that 
every  individual  tooth  resembles  a  row  of  poniards  set  upright 
against  the  walls  of  an  armory  ;  and  these  last,  says  Agassiz, 
furnished  with  weapons  so  murderous,  must  have  been  the 
pirates  of  the  period.    Some  had  their  fins  guarded  with  long 


216 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


spines,  hooked  like  the  beak  of  an  eagle ;  some  with  spines 
of  straighter  and  more  slender  form,  and  ribbed  and  furrowed 
longitudinally  like  columns  ;  some  were  shielded  by  an  armor 
of  bony  points ;  and  some  thickly  covered  with  glistening 
scales.  If  many  ages  must  have  passed  ere  fishes  appeared, 
there  was  assuredly  no  time  required  to  elevate  their  lower 
into  their  higher  families.  Judging,  too,  from  this  ancient 
deposit,  they  seem  to  have  been  introduced,  not  by  individu- 
als and  pairs,  but  by  whole  myriads. 

"  Forthwith,  the  sounds  and  seas,  each  creek  and  bay, 
With  fry  innumerable  swarmed  ;  and  shoals 
Of  fish,  that  with  their  fins  and  shining  scales 
Glide  under  the  green  wave  in  plumps  and  sculls, 
Banked  the  mid  sea." 

The  fish-bed  of  the  Upper  Ludlow  Rock  abounds  more  in 
osseous  remains  than  an  ancient  burying-ground.  The  stratum, 
over  wide  areas,  seems  an  almost  continuous  layer  of  matted 
bones,  jaws,  teeth,  spines,  scales,  palatal  plates,  and  shagreen- 
like prickles,  all  massed  together,  and  converted  into  a  sub- 
stance of  so  deep  and  shining  a  jet  color,  that  the  bed,  when 
44  first  discovered,  conveyed  the  impression,"  says  Mr.  Murch- 
ison,  44  that  it  enclosed  a  triturated  heap  of  black  beetles." 
And  such  are  the  remains  of  what  seem  to  have  been  the  first 
existing  vertebrata.  Thus,  ere  our  history  begins,  the  exist- 
ences of  two  great  systems,  the  Cambrian  and  the  Silurian, 
had  passed  into  extinction,  with  the  exception  of  what  seem  a 
few  connecting  links,  exclusively  molluscs,  that  are  found  in 
England  to  pass  from  the  higher  beds  of  the  Ludlow  rocks 
into  the  Lower  or  Tilestone  beds  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone. * 


*  «*  Upwrards  of  eight  hundred  extinct  species  of  animals  have  been 
described  as  belonging  to  the  earliest,  or  Protozoic  and  Silurian  period, 


THE    OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


217 


The  exuvise  of  at  least  four  platforms  of  being  lay  entombed 
furlong  below  furlong,  amid  the  gray,  mouldering  mudstones, 
the  harder  arenaceous  beds,  the  consolidated  clays,  and  the 
concretionary  limestones,  that  underlay  the  ancient  ocean  of 
the  Lower  Old  Red.  The  earth  had  already  become  a  vast 
sepulchre,  to  a  depth  beneath  the  bed  of  the  sea  equal  to  at 
least  twice  the  height  of  Ben  Nevis  over  its  surface. 

The  first  scene  in  the  Tempest  opens  amid  the  confusion 
and  turmoil  of  the  hurricane  —  amid  thunders  and  lightnings, 
the  roar  of  the  wind,  the  shouts  of  the  seamen,  the  rattling 
of  cordage,  and  the  wild  dash  of  the  billows.  The  history 
of  the  period  represented  by  the  Old  Eed  Sandstone  seems,  in 
what  now  forms  the  northern  half  of  Scotland,  to  have  opened 
in  a  similar  manner.  The  finely-laminated  lower  Tilestones 
of  England  were  deposited  evidently  in  a  calm  sea.  During 
the  contemporary  period  in  our  own  country,  the  vast  space 
which  now  includes  Orkney  and  Lochness,  Dingwall,  and 
Gamrie,  and  many  a*  thousand  square  mile  besides,  was  the 
scene  of  a  shallow  ocean,  perplexed  by  powerful  currents,  and 
agitated  by  waves.  A  vast  stratum  of  water-rolled  pebbles, 
varying  in  depth  from  a  hundred  feet  to  a  hundred  yards, 
remains  in  a  thousand  different  localities,  to  testify  of  the  dis- 
turbing agencies  of  this  time  of  commotion.  The  hardest 
masses  which  the  stratum  encloses,  —  porphyries  of  vitreous 
fracture  that  cut  glass  as  readily  as  flint,  and  masses  of 
quartz  that  strike  fire  quite  as  profusely  from  steel,  —  are  yet 
polished  and  ground  down  into  bullet-like  forms,  not  an  angu- 


and  of  these  only  about  one  hundred  are  found  also  in  the  overlying 
Devonian  series ;  while  but  fifteen  are  common  to  the  whole  Palaeo- 
zoic period,  and  not  one  extends  beyond  it." — (M.  de  Verneuil  and 
Count  D'Archiac,  quoted  by  Mr.  D.  T.  Ansted.  1844.) 

19 


218 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


lar  fragment  appearing  in  some  parts  of  the  mass  for  yards 
together.  The  debris  of  our  harder  rocks  rolled  for  centuries 
in  the  beds  of  our  more  impetuous  rivers,  or  tossed  for  ages 
along  our  more  exposed  and  precipitous  sea-shores,  could  not 
present  less  equivocally  the  marks  of  violent  and  prolonged 
attrition  than  the  pebbles  of  this  bed.  And  yet  it  is  surely 
difficult  to  conceive  how  the  bottom  of  any  sea  should  have 
been  so  violently  and  so  equally  agitated  for  so  greatly  ex- 
tended a  space  as  that  which  intervenes  between  Mealforvony 
in  Inverness-shire  and  Pomona  in  Orkney  in  one  direction,  and 
between  Applecross  and  Trouphead  in  another  —  and  for  a 
period  so  prolonged,  that  the  entire  area  should  have  come  to 
be  covered  with  a  stratum  of  rolled  pebbles  of  almost  every 
variety  of  ancient  rock,  fifteen  stories'  height  in  thickness. 
The  very  variety  of  its  contents  shows  that  the  period  must 
have  been  prolonged.  A  sudden  flood  sweeps  away  with  it 
the  accumulated  debris  of  a  range  of  mountains  ;  but  to  blend 
together,  in  equal  mixture,  the  debris  of  many  such  ranges, 
as  well  as  to  grind  down  their  roughnesses  and  angularities, 
and  fill  up  the  interstices  with  the  sand  and  gravel  produced 
in  the  process,  must  be  a  work  of  time.  I  have  examined 
with  much  interest,  in  various  localities,  the  fragments  of 
ancient  rock  inclosed  in  this  formation.  Many  of  them  are  no 
longer  to  be  found  in  situ,  and  the  group  is  essentially  dif- 
ferent from  that  presented  by  the  more  modern  gravels.  On 
the  shores  of  the  Frith  of  Cromarty,  for  instance,  by  far  the 
most  abundant  pebbles  are  of  a  blue  schistose  gneiss  :  frag- 
ments of  gray  granite  and  white  quartz  are  also  common  ;  and 
the  sea-shore  at  half  ebb  presents  at  a  short  distance  the  ap- 
pearance of  a  long  belt  of  bluish  gray,  from  the  color  of  the 
prevailing  stones  which  compose  it.  The  prevailing  color  of 
the  conglomerate  of  the  district,  on  the  contrary,  is  a  deep 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


219 


red.  It  contains  pebbles  of  small-grained,  red  granite,  red 
quartz  rock,  red  feldspar,  red  porphyry,  an  impure  red 
jasper,  red  hornstone,  and  a  red  granitic  gneiss,  identical  with 
the  well-marked  gneiss  of  the  neighboring  Sutors.  This  last 
is  the  only  rock  now  found  in  the  district,  of  which  fragments 
occur  in  the  conglomerate.  It  must  have  been  exposed  at 
the  time  to  the  action  of  the  waves,  though  afterwards  buried 
deep  under  succeeding  formations,  until  again  thrust  to  the 
surface  by  some  great  internal  convulsion,  of  a  date  compar- 
atively recent.* 

The  period  of  this  shallow  and  stormy  ocean  passed.  The 
bottom,  composed  of  the  identical  conglomerate  which  now 
forms  the  summit  of  some  of  our  loftiest  mountains,  sank 
throughout  its  wide  area  to  a  depth  so  profound  as  to  be  little 
affected  by  tides  or  tempests.  During  this  second  period 
there  took  place  a  vast  deposit  of  coarse  sandstone  strata, 
with  here  and  there  a  few  thin  beds  of  rolled  pebbles.  The 
general  subsidence  of  the  bottom  still  continued,  and,  after  a 


*  The  vast  beds  of  unconsolidated  gravel  with  which  one  of  the 
later  geological  revolutions  has  half  filled  some  of  our  northern  val- 
leys, and  covered  the  slopes  of  the  adjacent  hills,  present,  in  a  few 
localities,  appearances  somewhat  analogous  to  those  exhibited  by  this 
ancient  formation.  There  are  uncemcnted  accumulations  of  water- 
rolled  pebbles,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Inverness,  from  ninety  to  a 
hundred  feet  in  thickness.  But  this  stratum,  unlike  the  more  ancient 
one,  wanted  continuity.  It  must  have  been  accumulated,  too,  under 
the  operation  of  more  partial,  though  immensely  more  powerful  agen- 
cies. There  is  a  mediocrity  of  size  in  the  enclosed  fragments  of  the 
old  conglomerate,  which  gives  evidence  of  a  mediocrity  of  power  in 
the  transporting  agent.  In  the  upper  gravels,  on  the  contrary,  one 
of  the  agents  could  convey  from  vast  distances  blocks  of  stone  eighty 
and  a  hundred  tons  in  weight.  A  new  cause  of  tremendous  energy 
had  come  into  operation  in  the  geological  world. 


220 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


deposit  of  full  ninety  feet  bad  overlain  the  conglomerate,  the 
depth  became  still  more  profound  than  at  first.  A  fine,  semi- 
calcareous,  semi-aluminous  deposition  4ook  place  in  waters 
perfectly  undisturbed.  And  here  we  first  find  proof  that 
this  ancient  ocean  literally  swarmed  with  life  —  that  its 
bottom  was  covered  with  miniature  forests  of  algae,  and  its 
waters  darkened  by  immense  shoals  of  fish. 

In  middle  autumn,  at  the  close  of  the  herring  season,  when 
the  fish  have  just  spawned,  and  the  congregated  masses  are 
breaking  up  on  shallow  and  skerry,  and  dispersing  by  myri- 
ads over  the  deeper  seas,  they  rise  at  times  to  the  surface  by 
a  movement  so  simultaneous,  that  for  miles  and  miles  around 
the  skiff  of  the  fisherman  nothing  may  be  seen  but  the  bright 
glitter  of  scales,  as  if  the  entire  face  of  the  deep  were  a  blue 
robe  spangled  with  silver.  I  have  watched  them  at  sunrise 
at  such  seasons  on  the  middle  of  the  Moray  Frith,  when,  far 
as  the  eye  could  reach,  the  surface  has  been  ruffled  by  the 
splash  of  fins,  as  if  a  light  breeze  swept  over  it,  and  the  red 
light  has  flashed  in  gleams  of  an  instant  on  the  millions  and 
tens  of  millions  that  were  leaping  around  me,  a  handbreadth 
into  the  air,  thick  as  hail-stones  in  a  thunder-shower.  The 
amazing  amount  of  life  which  the  scene  included,  has  im- 
parted to  it  an  indescribable  interest.  On  most  occasions  the 
inhabitants  of  ocean  are  seen  but  by  scores  and  hundreds ; 
for  in  looking  down  into  their  green  twilight  haunts,  we  find 
the  view  bounded  by  a  few  yards,  or  at  most  a  few  fathoms  ; 
and  we  can  but  calculate  on  the  unseen  myriads  of  the  sur- 
rounding expanse  by  the  seen  few  that  occupy  the  narrow 
space  visible.  Here,  however,  it  was  not  the  few,  but  the 
myriads,  that  were  seen  —  the  innumerable  and  inconceiva- 
ble whole  —  all  palpable  to  the  sight  as  a  flock  on  a  hill-side  ; 
or,  at  least,  if  all  was  not  palpable,  it  was  only  because  sense 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


221 


has  its  limits  in  the  lighter  as  well  as  in  the  denser  medium  — 
that  the  multitudinous  distracts  it,  and  the  distant  eludes  it, 
and  the  far  horizon  bounds  it.  If  the  scene  spoke  not  of  in- 
finity in  the  sense  in  which  Deity  comprehends  it,  it  spoke 
of  it  in  at  least  the  only  sense  in  which  man  can  compre- 
hend it. 

Now:,  we  are  much  in  the  habit  of  thinking  of  such  amaz- 
ing multiplicity  of  being  —  when  we  think  of  it  at  all  —  with 
reference  to  but  the  later  times  of  the  world's  history.  We 
think  of  the  remote  past  as  a  time  of  comparative  solitude. 
We  forget  that  the  now  uninhabited  desert  was  once  a  popu- 
lous city.  Is  the  reader  prepared  to  realize,  in  connection 
with  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone  —  the  second  period  of 
vertebrated  existence  —  scenes  as  amazingly  fertile  in  life  as 
the  scene  just  described  —  oceans  as  thoroughly  occupied 
with  being  as  our  friths  and  estuaries  when  the  herrings  con- 
gregate most  abundantly  on  our  coasts  ?  There  are  evi- 
dences too  sure  to  be  disputed  that  such  must  have  been  the 
case.  I  have  seen  the  ichthyolite  beds,  where  washed  bare 
in  the  line  of  the  strata,  as  thickly  covered  with  oblong,  spin- 
dle-shaped nodules  as  I  have  ever  seen  a  fishing  bank  cov- 
ered with  herrings  ;  and  have  ascertained  that  every  individ- 
ual nodule  had  its  nucleus  of  animal  matter  —  that  it  was 
a  stone  coffin  in  miniature,  holding  enclosed  its  organic  mass 
of  bitumen  or  bone  — its  winged,  or  enamelled,  or  thorn- 
covered  ichthyolite. 

At  this  period  of  our  history,  some  terrible  catastrophe  in- 
volved in  sudden  destruction  the  fish  of  an  area  at  least  a 
hundred  miles  from  boundary  to  boundary,  perhaps  much 
more.  The  same  platform  in  Orkney  as  at  Cromarty  is 
strewed  thick  with  remains,  which  exhibit  unequivocally  the 
marks  of  violent  death.  The  figures  are  contorted,  contract- 
19* 


222 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


ed,  curved ;  the  tail  in  many  instances  is  bent  round  to  the 
head ;  the  spines  stick  out ;  the  fins  are  spread  to  the  full,  as 
in  fish  that  die  in  convulsions.  The  Pterichthys  shows  its 
arms  extended  at  their  stifTest  angle,  as  if  prepared  for  an 
enemy.  The  attitudes  of  all  the  ichthyolites  on  this  platform 
are  attitudes  of  fear,  anger,  and  pain.  The  remains,  too, 
appear  to  have  suffered  nothing  from  the  after  attacks  of  pre- 
daceous  fishes ;  none  such  seem  to  have  survived.  The  rec- 
ord is  one  of  destruction  at  once  widely  spread  and  total,  so 
far  as  it  extended.  There  are  proofs  that,  whatever  may 
have  been  the  cause  of  the  catastrophe,  it  must  have  taken 
place  in  a  sea  unusually  still.  The  scales,  when  scattered  by 
some  slight  undulation,  are  scattered  to  the  distance  of  only  a 
few  inches,  and  still  exhibit  their  enamel  entire,  and  their 
peculiar  fineness  of  edge.  The  spines,  even  when  separated, 
retain  their  original  needle-like  sharpness  of  point.  Rays, 
well  nigh  as  slender  as  horse-hairs,  are  enclosed  unbroken  in 
the  mass.  Whole  ichthyolites  occur,  in  which  not  only  all 
the  parts  survive,  but  even  the  expression  which  the  stiff  and 
threatening  attitude  conveyed  when  the  last  struggle  was 
over.  Destruction  must  have  come  in  the  calm,  and  it  must 
have  been  of  a  kind  by  which  the  calm  was  nothing  dis- 
turbed. In  what  could  it  have  originated  ?  By  what  quiet 
but  potent  agency  of  destruction  were  the  innumerable  exist- 
ences of  an  area  perhaps  ten  thousand  square  miles  in  extent 
annihilated  at  once,  and  yet  the  medium  in  which  they  had 
lived  left  undisturbed  by  its  operations  ?  Conjecture  lacks 
footing  in  grappling  with  the  enigma,  and  expatiates  in  un- 
certainty over  all  the  known  phenomena  of  death.  Diseases 
of  mysterious  origin  break  out  at  times  in  the  animal  king- 
dom, and  well  nigh  exterminate  the  tribes  on  which  they  fall. 
The  present  generation  has  seen  a  hundred  millions  of  the 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


223 


human  family  swept  away  by  a  disease  unknown  to  our 
fathers.  Virgil  describes  the  fatal  murrain  that  once  depop- 
ulated the  Alps,  not  more  as  a  poet  than  as  a  historian.  The 
shell-fish  of  the  rivers  of  North  America  died  in  such  vast 
abundance  during  a  year  of  the  present  century,  that  the  ani- 
mals, washed  out  of  their  shells,  lay  rotting  in  masses  beside 
the  banks,  infecting  the  very  air.  About  the  close  of  the  last 
century,  the  haddock  well  nigh  disappeared,  for  several  sea- 
sons together,  from  the  eastern  coasts  of  Scotland  ;  and  it  is 
related  by  Creech,  that  a  Scotch  shipmaster  of  the  period 
sailed  for  several  leagues  on  the  coast  of  Norway,  about  the 
time  the  scarcity  began,  through  a  floating  shoal  of  dead 
haddocks.*    But  the  ravages  of  no  such  disease,  however 


*  I  have  heard  elderly  fishermen  of  the  Moray  Frith  state,  in  con- 
nection with  what  they  used  to  term  "  the  haddock  dearth"  of  this 
period,  that,  for  several  weeks  ere  the  fish  entirely  disappeared,  they 
acquired  an  extremely  disagreeable  taste,  as  if  they  had  been  boiled 
in  tobacco  juice,  and  became  unfit  for  the  table.  For  the  three  fol- 
lowing years  they  were  extremely  rare  on  the  coast,  and  several  years 
more  elapsed  ere  they  were  caught  in  the  usual  abundance.  The 
fact  related  by  Creech,  a  very  curious  one,  I  subjoin  in  his  own 
words  ;  it  occurs  in  his  third  Letter  to  Sir  John  Sinclair :  "  On  Friday, 
the  4th  December,  1789,  the  ship  Brothers,  Captain  Stewart,  arrived 
at  Leith  from  Archangel,  who  reported  that,  on  the  coast  of  Lapland 
and  Norway,  he  sailed  many  leagues  through  immense  quantities  of 
dead  haddocks  floating  on  the  sea.  He  spoke  several  English  ships, 
who  reported  the  same  fact.  It  is  certain  that  haddocks,  which  was 
the  fish  in  the  greatest  abundance  in  the  Edinburgh  market,  have 
scarcely  been  seen  there  these  three  years.  In  February,  1790,  three 
haddocks  were  brought  to  market,  which,  from  their  scarcity,  sold 
for  7s.  Gd." 

The  dead  haddocks  seen  by  the  Leith  shipmaster  were  floating  by 
thousands ;  and  most  of  their  congeners  among  what  fishermen  term 
the  white  fish,"  such  as  cod,  ling,  and  whiting,  also  float  when 


224 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


extensive,  could  well  account  for  some  of  the  phenomena 
of  this  platform  of  death.  It  is  rarely  that  disease  falls 
equally  on  many  different  tribes  at  once,  and  never  does  it 
fall  with  instantaneous,  suddenness ;  whereas  in  the  ruin  of 
this  platform  from  ten  to  twelve  distinct  genera  seem  to  have 
been  equally  involved ;  and  so  suddenly  did  it  perform  its 
work,  that  its  victims  were  fixed  in  their  first  attitude  of  ter- 
ror and  surprise.  I  have  observed,  too,  that  groups  of  ad- 
joining nodules  are  charged  frequently  with  fragments  of  the 


dead ;  whereas  the  bodies  of  fish  whose  bowels  and  air-bladders  are 
comparatively  small  and  tender,  lie  at  the  bottom.  The  herring  fish- 
erman, if  the  fish  die  in  his  nets,  finds  it  no  easy  matter  to  buoy  them 
up  ;  and  if  the  shoal  entangled  be  a  large  one,  he  fails  at  times,  from 
the  great  weight,  in  recovering  them  at  all,  losing  both  nets  and  her- 
rings. Now,  if  a  corresponding  difference  obtained  among  fish  of  the 
extinct  period  —  if  some  rose  to  the  surface  when  they  died,  while 
others  remained  at  the  bottom  —  we  must,  of  course,  expect  to  find 
their  remains  in  very  different  degrees  of  preservation  —  to  find  only 
scattered  fragments  of  the  floaters,  while  of  the  others  many  may  oc- 
cur comparatively  entire.  Even  should  they  have  died  on  the  same 
beds,  too,  we  may  discover  their  remains  separated  by  hundreds  of 
miles.  The  haddocks  that  disappeared  from  the  coast  of  Britain  were 
found  floating  in  shoals  on  the  coasts  of  Norway.  The  remains  of 
an  immense  body  of  herrings,  that  weighed  down,  a  few  seasons  since, 
the  nets  of  a  crew  of  fishermen,  in  a  muddy  hollow  of  the  Moray 
Frith,  and  defied  the  utmost  exertions  of  three  crews  united  to  weigh 
them  from  the  bottom,  are,  I  doubt  not,  in  the  muddy  hollow  still. 
On  a  principle  thus  obvious  it  may  be  deemed  not  improbable  that 
the  ichthyoiites  of  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone  might  have  had 
numerous  contemporaries,  of  which,  unless  in  some  instances  the 
same  accident  which  killed  also  entombed  them,  we  can  know  noth- 
ing in  their  character  as  such,  and  whose  broken  fragments  may  yet 
be  found  in  some  other  locality,  where  they  may  be  regarded  as  char- 
acteristic of  a  different  formation. 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


225 


same  variety  of  ichthyolite ;  and  the  circumstance  seems 
fraught  with  evidence  regarding  both  the  original  habits  of 
the  creatures,  and  the  instantaneous  suddenness  of  the  de- 
struction by  which  they  were  overtaken.  They  seem,  like 
many  of  our  existing  fish,  to  have  been  gregarious,  and  to 
have  perished  together  ere  their  crowds  had  time  to  break  up 
and  disperse. 

Fish,  have  been  found  floating  dead  in  shoals  beside  sub- 
marine volcanoes  —  killed  either  by  the  heated  water,  or  by 
mephitic  gases.  There  are,  however,  no  marks  of  volcanic 
activity  in  connection  with  the  ichthyolite  beds  —  no  marks, 
at  least,  which  belong  to  nearly  the  same  age  with  the  fossils. 
The  disturbing  granite  of  the  neighboring  eminences  was  not 
upheaved  until  after  the  times  of  the  Oolite.  But  the  volcano, 
if  such  was  the  destroying  agent,  might  have  been  distant ; 
nay,  from  some  of  the  points  in  an  area  of  such  immense 
extent,  it  must  have  been  distant.  The  beds  abound,  as  has 
been  said,  in  lime  ;  and  the  thought  has  often  struck  me  that 
calcined  lime,  cast  out  as  ashes  from  some  distant  crater,  and 
carried  by  the  winds,  might  have  been  the  cause  of  the  wide- 
ly-spread destruction  to  which  their  organisms  testify.  I  have 
seen  the  fish  of  a  small  trouting  stream,  over  which  a  bridge 
was  in  the  course  of  building,  destroyed  in  a  single  hour,  for 
a  full  mile  below  the  erection,  by  the  few  troughfuls  of  lime 
that  fell  into  the  water  when  the  centring  was  removed. 


226 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

Successors  of  the  exterminated  Tribes.  —  The  Gap  slowly  filled. — 
Proof  that  the  Vegetation  of  a  Formation  may  long  survive  its 
Animal  Tribes.  Probable  Cause.  —  Immensely  extended  Period 
during  which  Fishes  were  the  Master-existences  of  our  Planet.  — 
Extreme  Folly  of  an  Infidel  Objection  illustrated  by  the  Fact. — 
Singular  Analogy  between  the  History  of  Fishes  as  Individuals 
and  as  a  Class.  —  Chemistry  of  the  Lower  Formation.  —  Principles 
on  which  the  Fish- enclosing  Nodules  were  probably  formed.  — 
Chemical  Effect  of  Animal  Matter  in  discharging  the  Color  from 
Red  Sandstone.  —  Origin  of  the  prevailing  tint  to  which  the  Sys- 
tem owes  its  Name.  —  Successive  Modes  in  which  a  Metal  may  ex- 
ist. —  The  Pest  orations  of  the  Geologist  void  of  Color.  — Very  dif- 
ferent Appearance  of  the  Ichthyolites  of  Cromarty  and  Moray. 

The  period  of  death  passed,  and  over  the  innumerable 
dead  there  settled  a  soft,  muddy  sediment,  that  hid  them  from 
the  light,  bestowing  upon  them  such  burial  as  a  November 
snow-storm  bestows  on  the  sere  and  blighted  vegetation  of 
the  previous  summer  and  autumn.  For  an  unknown  space 
of  time,  represented  in  the  formation  by  a  deposit  about  fifty 
feet  in  thickness,  the  waters  of  the  depopulated  area  seem  to 
have  remained  devoid  of  animal  life.  A  few  scales  and 
plates  then  begin  to  appear.  The  fish  that  had  existed  out- 
side the  chasm  seem  to  have  gradually  gained  upon  it,  as 
their  numbers  increased,  just  as  the  European  settlers  of 
America  have  been  gaining  on  the  backwoods,  and  making 
themselves  homes  amid  the  burial-mounds  of  a  race  extinct 
for  centuries.  For  a  lengthened  period,  however,  these  finny 
settlers  must  have  been  comparatively  few  —  mere  squatters 
in  the  waste.    In  the  beds  of  stratified  clay  in  wThich  their 


THE  OLD  KED  SANDSTONE. 


227 


remains  first  occur,  over  what  we  may  term  the  densely 
crowded  platform  of  violent  death,  the  explorer  may  labor 
for  hours  together  without  finding  a  single  scale. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark,  however,  that  this  upper  bed 
abounds  quite  as  much  in  the  peculiar  vegetable  impressions 
of  the  formation  as  the  lower  platform  itself.  An  abundance 
equally  great  occurs  in  some  localities  only  a  few  inches  over 
the  line  of  the  exterminating  catastrophe.  Thickets  of  ex- 
actly the  same  algae,  amid  which  the  fish  of  the  formation 
had  sheltered  when  living,  grew  luxuriantly  over  their  graves 
when  dead.  The  agencies  of  destruction  which  annihilated 
the  animal  life  of  so  extended  an  area,  spared  its  vegetation  ; 
just  as  the  identical  forests  that  had  waved  over  the  semi- 
civilized  aborigines  of  North  America  continued  to  wave  over 
the  more  savage  red  men,  their  successors,  long  after  the 
original  race  had  been  exterminated.  The  inference  deduci- 
ble  from  the  fact,  though  sufficiently  simple,  seems  in  a  geo- 
logical point  of  view  a  not  unimportant  one.  The  flora  of  a 
system  may  long  survive  its  fauna  ;  so  that  that  may  be  but 
one  formation,  regarded  loith  reference  to  plants,  ivliich  may 
be  two  or  more  formations,  regarded  with  reference  to  ani- 
mals. No  instance  of  any  such  phenomenon  occurs  in  the 
later  geological  periods.  The  changes  in  animal  and  vege- 
table life  appear  to  have  run  parallel  to  each  other  from  the 
times  of  the  tertiary  formations  down  to  those  of  the  coal ; 
but  in  the  earlier  deposits  the  case  must  have  been  different. 
The  animal  organisms  of  the  newer  Silurian  strata  form  es- 
sentially different  groups  from  those  of  the  Lower  Old  Red 
Sandstone,  and  both  differ  from  those  of  the  Cornstone  divis- 
ions ;  and  yet  the  greater  portion  of  their  vegetable  remains 
seem  the  same.  The  stem-like  impressions  of  the  fucoid  bed 
of  the  Upper  Ludlow  Rocks  cannot  be  distinguished  from 


228 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


those  of  the  ichthyolite  beds  of  Cromarty  and  Ross,  nor  these 
again  from  the  impressions  of  the  Arbroath  pavement,  or  the 
Den  of  Balruddery.  Nor  is  there  much  difficulty  in  con- 
ceiving how  the  vegetation  of  a  formation  should  come  to  sur- 
vive its  animals.  What  is  fraught  with  health  to  the  exist- 
ences of  the  vegetable  kingdom,  is  in  many  instances  a 
deadly  poison  to  those  of  the  animal.  The  grasses  and  water- 
lilies  of  the  neighborhood  of  Naples  flourish  luxuriantly  amid 
the  carbonic  acid  gas  which  rests  so  densely  over  the  pools 
and  runnels  out  of  which  they  spring,  that  the  bird  stoops  to 
drink,  and  falls  dead  into  the  water.  The  lime  that  destroys 
the  reptiles,  fish,  and  insects  of  a  thickly  inhabited  lake  or 
stream,  injures  not  a  single  flag  or  bulrush  among  the  millions 
that  line  its  edges.  The  two  kingdoms  exist  under  laws 
of  life  and  death  so  essentially  dissimilar,  that  it  has  become 
one  of  the  common-places  of  poetry  to  indicate  the  blight  and 
decline  of  the  tribes  of  the  one  by  the  unwonted  luxuriancy 
of  the  productions  of  the  other.  Otway  tells  us,  in  describ- 
ing the  horrors  of  the  plague  which  almost  depopulated 
London,  that  the  "  destroying  angel  stretched  his  arm  "  over 
the  city, 

"  Till  in  th'  untrodden  streets  unwholesome  grass 
Grew  of  great  stalk,  and  color  gross, 
A  melancholic  poisonous  green." 

The  work  of  deposition  went  on ;  a  bed  of  pale  yellow 
saliferous  sandstone  settled,  tier  over  tier,  on  a  bed  of  strati- 
fled  clay,  and  was  itself  overlaid  by  another  bed  of  stratified 
clay  in  turn.  And  this  upper  bed  had  also  its  organisms. 
The  remains  of  its  sea-weed  still  spread  out  thick  and  dark 
amid  the  foldings  of  the  strata,  and  occasionally  its  clusters 
of  detached  scales.    But  the  circumstances  were  less  favora- 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


229 


ble  to  the  preservation  of  entire  ichthyolites  than  those  under 
which  the  organisms  of  the  lower  platform  were  wrapped  up 
in  their  stony  coverings.  The  matrix,  which  is  more  micaceous 
than  the  other,  seems  to  have  been  less  conservative,  and  the 
waters  were  probably  less  still.  The  process  went  on.  Age 
succeeded  age,  and  one  stratum  covered  up  another.  Gener- 
ations lived,  died,  and  were  entombed  in  the  ever-growing 
depositions.  Succeeding  generations  pursued  their  instincts  by 
myriads,  happy  in  existence,  over  the  surface  which  covered 
the  broken  and  perishing  remains  of  their  predecessors,  and 
then  died  and  were  entombed  in  turn,  leaving  a  higher  plat- 
form, and  a  similar  destiny  to  the  generations  that  succeeded. 
Whole  races  became  extinct,  through  what  process  of  destruc- 
tion who  can  tell  ?  Other  races  sprang  into  existence  through 
that  adorable  power  which  One  only  can  conceive,  and  One 
only  can  exert.  An  inexhaustible  variety  of  design  expatiated 
freely  within  the  limits  of  the  ancient  type.  The  main  con- 
ditions remained  the  same  —  the  minor  details  were  dissimilar. 
Vast  periods  passed  ;  a  class  low  in  the  scale  still  continued  to 
furnish  the  master  existences  of  creation  ;  and  so  immensely 
extended  was  the  term  of  its  sovereignty,  that  a  being  of  lim- 
ited faculties,  if  such  could  have  existed  uncreated,  and  wit- 
nessed the  whole,  would  have  inferred  that  the  power  of  the 
Creator  had  reached  its  extreme  boundary,  when  fishes  had 
been  called  into  existence,  and  that  our  planet  was  destined 
to  be  the  dwelling-place  of  no  nobler  inhabitants.  If  there 
be  men  dignified  by  the  name  of  philosophers,  who  can  hold 
that  the  present  state  of  being,  with  all  its  moral  evil,  and  all 
its  physical  suffering,  is  to  be  succeeded  by  no  better  and 
happier  state,  just  because  61  all  things  have  continued  as  they 
were  "  for  some  five  or  six  thousand  years,  how  much  sounder 
and  more  conclusive  would  the  inference  have  been  which 
20 


230 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


could  have  been  based,  as  in  the  supposed  case,  on  a  period 
perhaps  a  hundred  times  more  extended  ? 

There  exist  wonderful  analogies  in  nature  between  the 
geological  history  of  the  vertebrated  animals  as  an  order,  and 
the  individual  history  of  every  mammifer  —  between  the  his- 
tory, too,  of  fish  as  a  class,  and  that  of  every  single  fish. 
"  It  has  been  found  by  Tiedemann,"  says  Mr.  Lyell,  "  that 
the  brain  of  the  foetus  in  the  higher  class  of  vertebrated  ani- 
mals assumes  in  succession  the  various  forms  which  belong 
to  fishes,  reptiles,  and  birds,  before  it  acquires  those  additions 
and  modifications  which  are  peculiar  to  the  mammiferous 
tribes."  "  In  examining  the  brain  of  the  mammalia,"  says  M. 
Serres,  "  at  an  early  stage  of  life,  you  perceive  the  cerebral 
hemispheres  consolidated,  as  in  fish,  in  two  vesicles  isolated 
one  from  the  other ;  at  a  later  period  you  see  them  affect 
the  configuration  of  the  cerebral  hemispheres  of  reptiles  ; 
still  later,  again,  they  present  you  with  the  forms  of  those  of 
birds ;  and  finally,  at  the  era  of  birth,  the  permanent  forms 
which  the  adult  mammalia  present."  And  such  seems  to 
have  been  the  history  of  the  vertebrata  as  an  order,  as  cer- 
tainly as  that  of  the  individual  mammifer.  The  fish  preceded 
the  reptile  in  the  order  of  creation,  just  as  the  crustacean  had 
preceded  the  fish,  and  the  annelid  the  crustacean.  Again, 
though  the  fact  be  somewhat  more  obscure,  the  reptile  seems 
to  have  preceded  the  bird.  We  find,  however,  unequivocal 
traces  of  the  feathered  tribes  in  well-marked  foot-prints  im- 
pressed on  a  sandstone  in  North  America,  at  most  not  more 
modern  than  the  Lias,  but  which  is  generally  supposed  to  be 
of  the  same  age  with  the  New  Red  Sandstone  of  Germany 
and  our  own  country.  In  the  Oolite  —  at  least  one,  perhaps 
two  formations  later  —  the  bones  of  the  two  species  of  mammif- 
erous quadrupeds  have  been  found,  apparently  of  the  marsu- 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


231 


pial  family  ;  and  these,  says  Mr.  Lyell,  afford  the  only  exam- 
ple yet  known  of  terrestrial  mammalia  in  rocks  of  a  date  an- 
terior to  the  older  tertiary  formations.  The  reptile  seems  to 
have  preceded  the  bird,  and  the  bird  the  mammiferous  ani- 
mal. Thus  the  foetal  history  of  the  nervous  system  in  the  in- 
dividual mammifer  seems  typical,  in  every  stage  of  its  prog- 
ress, of  the  history  of  the  grand  division  at  the  head  of 
which  the  mammifer  stands.  Agassiz,  at  the  late  meeting  of 
the  British  Association  in  Glasgow,  mentioned  an  analogous 
fact.  After  describing  the  one-sided  tail  of  the  more  ancient 
fish,  especially  the  fish  of  the  Old  Eed  Sandstone,  —  the  sub- 
jects of  his  illustration  at  the  time,  —  he  stated,  as  the  result 
of  a  recent  discovery,  that  the  young  of  the  salmon  in  their 
foetal  state  exhibit  the  same  unequally-sided  condition  of  tail 
which  characterizes  those  existences  of  the  earlier  ages  of 
the  world.  The  individual  fish,  just  as  it  begins  to  exist,  pre- 
sents the  identical  appearances  which  were  exhibited  by  the 
order  when  the  order  began  to  exist.  Is  there  nothing  won- 
derful in  analogies  such  as  these  —  analogies  that  point  through 
the  embryos  of  the  present  time  to  the  womb  of  Nature,  big 
with  its  multitudinous  forms  of  being  ?  Are  they  charged 
with  no  such  nice  evidence  as  a  Butler  would  delight  to  con- 
template,  regarding  that  unique  style  of  Deity,  if  I  may  so  ex- 
press myself,  which  runs  through  all  his  works,  whether  we 
consider  him  as  God  of  Nature,  or  Author  of  Revelation  ? 
In  this  style  of  type  and  symbol  did  He  reveal  himself  of 
old  to  his  chosen  people  ;  in  this  style  of  allegory  and  para- 
ble did  He  again  address  himself  to  them,  when  he  sojourned 
among  them  on  earth. 

The  chemistry  of  the  formation  seems  scarce  inferior  in 
interest  to  its  zoology ;  but  the  chemist  had  still  much  to  do 
for  Geology,  and  the  processes  are  but  imperfectly  known. 


232 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


There  is  no  field  in  which  more  laurels  await  the  philosophi- 
cal chemist  than  the  geological  one.  I  have  said  that  all  the 
calcareous  nodules  of  the  ichthyolite  beds  seem  to  have  had 
originally  their  nucleus  of  organic  matter.  In  nine  cases  out 
of  ten  the  organism  can  be  distinctly  traced  ;  and  in  the  tenth 
there  is  almost  always  something  to  indicate  where  it  lay  —  an 
elliptical  patch  of  black,  or  an  oblong  spot,  from  which  the 
prevailing  color  of  the  stone  has  been  discharged,  and  a 
lighter  hue  substituted.  Is  the  reader  acquainted  with  Mr. 
Pepys's  accidental  experiment,  as  related  by  Mr.  Lyell,  and 
recorded  in  the  first  volume  of  the  Geological  Transactions  ? 
It  affords  an  interesting  proof  that  animal  matter,  in  a  state 
of  putrefaction,  proves  a  powerful  agent  in  the  decomposition 
of  mineral  substances  held  in  solution,  and  of  their  conse- 
quent precipitation.  An  earthen  pitcher,  containing  several 
quarts  of  sulphate  of  iron,  had  been  suffered  to  remain  undis- 
turbed and  unexamined  in  a  corner  of  Mr.  Pepys's  laboratory 
for  about  a  twelvemonth.  Some  luckless  mice  had  mean- 
while fallen  into  it,  and  been  drowned  ;  and  when  it  at  length 
came  to  be  examined,  an  oily  scum,  and  a  yellow,  sulphu- 
reous powder,  mixed  with  hairs,  were  seen  floating  on  the 
top,  and  the  bones  of  the  mice  discovered  lying  at  the  bottom  ; 
and  it  was  found,  that  over  the  decaying  bodies  the  mineral 
components  of  the  fluid  had  been  separated  and  precipitated 
in  a  dark-colored  sediment,  consisting  of  grains  of  pyrites 
and  of  sulphur,  of  copperas  in  its  green  and  crystalline  form, 
and  of  black  oxide  of  iron.  The  animal  and  mineral  mat- 
ters had  mutually  acted  upon  one  another  ;  and  the  metallic 
sulphate,  deprived  of  its  oxygen  in  the  process,  had  thus  cast 
down  its  ingredients.  It  would  seem  that  over  the  putrefying 
bodies  of  the  fish  of  the  Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone  the  water 
had  deposited,  in  like  manner,  the  lime  with  which  it  was 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


233 


charged  ;  and  hence  the  calcareous  nodules  in  which  we  find 
their  remains  enclosed.  The  form  of  the  nodule  almost  in- 
variably agrees  with  that  of  the  ichthyolite  within  ;  it  is  a 
coffin  in  the  ancient  Egyptian  style.  Was  the  ichthyolite 
twisted  half  round  in  the  contorted  attitude  of  violent  death  ? 
the  nodule  has  also  its  twist.  Did  it  retain  its  natural  pos- 
ture ?  the  nodule  presents  the  corresponding  spindle  form. 
Was  it  broken  up,  and  the  outline  destroyed  ?  the  nodule  is 
flattened  and  shapeless.  In  almost  every  instance  the  form 
of  the  organism  seems  to  have  regulated  that  of  the  stone. 
We  may  trace,  in  many  of  these  concretionary  masses,  the 
operations  of  three  distinct  principles,  all  of  which  must  have 
been  in  activity  at  one  and  the  same  time.  They  are  wrapped 
concentrically  each  round  its  organism  :  they  split  readily 
in  the  line  of  the  enclosing  stratum,  and  are  marked  by  its 
alternating  rectilinear  bars  of  lighter  and  darker  color ;  and 
they  are  radiated  from  the  centre  to  the  circumference. 
Their  concentric  condition  shows  the  chemical  influences  of 
the  decaying  animal  matter ;  their  fissile  character  and  par- 
allel layers  of  color  indicate  the  general  deposition  which 
was  taking  place  at  the  time  ;  and  their  radiated  structure 
testifies  to  that  law  of  crystalline  attraction,  through  which, 
by  a  wonderful  masonry,  the  invisible  but  well-cut  atoms 
build  up  their  cubes,  their  rhombs,  their  hexagons,  and  their 
pyramids,  and  are  at  once  the  architects  and  the  materials  of 
the  structure  which  they  rear. 

Another  and  very  different  chemical  effect  of  organic  mat- 
ter may  be  remarked  in  the  darker  colored  arenaceous  de- 
posits of  the  formation,  and  occasionally  in  the  stratified  clays 
and  nodules  of  the  ichthyolite  bed.  In  a  print-work,  the 
whole  web  is  frequently  thrown  into  the  vat  and  dyed  of  one 
color ;  but  there  afterwards  comes  a  discharging  process : 
20* 


234 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


some  chemical  mixture  is  dropped  on  the  fabric  ;  the  dye 
disappears  wherever  the  mixture  touches ;  and  in  leaves,  and 
sprigs,  and  patches,  according  to  the  printer's  pattern,  the 
cloth  assumes  its  original  white.  Now  the  colored  deposits 
of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  have,  in  like  manner,  been  subject- 
ed to  a  discharging  process.  The  dye  has  disappeared  in 
oblong  or  circular  patches  of  various  sizes,  from  the  eighth 
of  an  inch  to  a  foot  in  diameter ;  the  original  white  has 
taken  its  place  ;  and  so  thickly  are  these  speckles  grouped  in 
some  of  the  darker-tinted  beds,  that  the  surfaces,  where 
washed  by  the  sea,  present  the  appearance  of  sheets  of  cal- 
ico. The  discharging  agent  was  organic  matter;  the  uncol- 
ored  patches  are  no  mere  surface  films,  for,  when  cut  at  right 
angles,  their  depth  is  found  to  correspond  with  their  breadth, 
the  circle  is  a  sphere,  the  ellipsis  forms  the  section  of  an  egg- 
shaped  body,  and  in  the  centre  of  each  we  generally  find 
traces  of  the  organism  in  whose  decay  it  originated.  I  have 
repeatedly  found  single  scales,  in  the  ichthyolite  beds,  sur- 
rounded by  uncolored  spheres  about  the  size  of  musket  bul- 
lets. It  is  well  for  the  young  geologist  carefully  to  mark 
such  appearances  —  to  trace  them  through  the  various  in- 
stances in  which  the  organism  may  be  recognized  and  iden- 
tified, to  those  in  which  its  last  vestiges  have  disappeared. 
They  are  the  hatchments  of  the  geological  world,  and  indi- 
cate that  life  once  existed  where  all  other  record  of  it  has 
perished.* 


*  Some  of  tlie  clay- slates  of  the  primary  formations  abound  in 
these  circular,  uncolored  patches,  bearing  in  their  centres,  like  the 
patches  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone,  half  obliterated  nuclei  of  black. 
Were  they,  too,  once  fossiliferous  ?  and  do  these  blank  erasures  remain 
to  testify  to  the  fact  ?    I  find  the  organic  origin  of  the  patches  in  the 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


235 


It  is  the  part  of  the  chemist  to  tell  us  by  what  peculiar  ac- 
tion of  the  organic  matter  the  dye  was  discharged  in  these 
spots  and  patches.  But  how  was  the  dye  itself  procured  ? 
From  what  source  was  the  immense  amount  of  iron  derived, 
which  gives  to  nearly  five  sixths  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone 
the  characteristic  color  to  which  it  owes  its  name  ?  An  ex- 
amination of  its  lowest  member,  the  great  conglomerate, 
suggests  a  solution  of  the  query.  I  have  adverted  to  the  large 
proportion  of  red-colored  pebbles  which  this  member  con- 


Old  Red  Sandstone  remarked  by  Professor  Fleming  as  early  as  the 
year  1830,  and  the  remark  reiterated  by  Dr.  Anderson,  of  Newburgh, 
in  nearly  the  same*  words,,  but  with  no  acknowledgment,  ten  years 
later.  The  following  is  the  minute  and  singularly  faithful  description 
of  the  Professor  :  — 

"  On  the  surface  of  the  strata  in  the  lower  beds,  circular  spots, 
nearly  a  foot  in  diameter,  may  be  readily  perceived  by  their  pale  yel- 
low colors,  contrasted  with  the  dark  red  of  the  surrounding  rock. 
These  spots,  however,  are  not,  as  may  at  first  be  supposed,  mere  su- 
perficial films,  but  derive  their  circular  form  from  a  colored  sphere  to 
which  they  belong.  This  sphere  is  not  to  be  distinguished  from  the 
rest  of  the  bed  by  any  difference  in  mechanical  structure,  but  merely 
by  the  absence  of  much  of  that  oxide  of  iron  with  which  the  other 
portion  of  the  mass  is  charged.  The  circumference  of  this  colored 
sphere  is  usually  well  defined ;  and  at  its  centre  may  always  be  ob- 
served matter  of  a  darker  color,  in  some  cases  disposed  in  concentric 
layers,  in  others  of  calcareous  and  crystalline  matter,  the  remains 
probably  of  some  vegetable  or  animal  organism,  the  decomposition  of 
which  exercised  a  limited  influence  on  the  coloring  matter  of  the  sur- 
rounding rock.  In  some  cases  I  have  observed  these  spheres  slightly 
compressed  at  opposite  sides,  in  a  direction  parallel  with  the  plane  of 
stratification  —  the  result,  without  doubt,  of  the  subsidence  or  con- 
traction of  the  mass,  after  the  central  matter  or  nucleus  had  ceased 
to  exercise  its  influence."  —  {Cheek's  Edinburgh  Journal,  J? eh.  1831, 
p.  82.) 


236 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


tains,  and,  among  the  rest,  to  a  red  granitic  gneiss,  which 
must  have  been  exposed  over  wide  areas  at  the  time  of  its 
deposition,  and  which,  after  the  lapse  of  a  period  which  ex- 
tended from  at  least  the  times  of  the  Lower  Old  Red  to  those 
of  the  Upper  Oolite,  was  again  thrust  upwards  to  the  surface, 
to  form  the  rectilinear  .chain  of  precipitous  eminences  to 
which  the  hills  of  Cromarty  and  of  Nigg  belong.  This  rock 
is  now  almost  the  sole  representative,  in  the  north  of  Scot- 
land, of  the  ancient  rocks  whence  the  materials  of  the  Old 
Red  Sandstone  were  derived.  It  abounds  in  haematic  iron  ore, 
diffused  as  a  component  of  the  stone  throughout  the  entire 
mass,  and  which  also  occurs  in  it  in  ponderous  insulated 
blocks  of  great  richness,  and  in  thin,  thread-like  veins. 
When  ground  down,  it  forms  a  deep  red  pigment,  undistin- 
guishable  in  tint  from  the  prevailing  color  of  the  sandstone, 
and  which  leaves  a  stain  so  difficult  to  be  effaced,  that  shep- 
herds employ  it  in  some  parts  of  the  Highlands  for  marking 
their  sheep.  Every  rawer  fragment  of  the  rock  bears  its 
hsematic  tinge  ;  and  were  the  whole  ground  by  some  mechan- 
ical process  into  sand,  and  again  consolidated,  the  produce 
of  the  experiment  wTould  be  undoubtedly  a  deep  red  sand- 
stone. In  an  upper  member  of  the  lower  formation  —  that 
immediately  over  the  ichthyolite  beds  —  different  materials 
seem  to  have  been  employed.  A  white,  quartzy  sand  and  a 
pale-colored  clay  form  the  chief  ingredients ;  and  though 
the  ochry-tinted  coloring  matter  be  also  iron,  it  is  iron  existing 
in  a  different  condition,  and  in  a  more  diluted  form.  The 
oxide  deposited  by  the  chalybeate  springs  which  pass  through 
the  lower  members  of  the  formation,  would  give  to  white 
sand  a  tinge  exactly  resembling  the  tint  borne  by  this  upper 
member. 

The  passage  of  metals  from  lower  to  higher  formations, 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


237 


and  from  one  combination  to  another,  constitutes  surely  a 
highly  interesting  subject  of  inquiry.  The  transmission  of 
iron  in  a  chemical  form,  through  chalybeate  springs,  from 
deposits  in  which  it  had  been  diffused  in  a  form  merely  me- 
chanical, is  of  itself  curious  ;  but  how  much  more  so  its  pas- 
sage and  subsequent  accumulation,  as  in  bog-iron  and  the 
iron  of  the  Coal  Measures,  through  the  agency  of  vegetation ! 
How  strange,  if  the  steel  axe  of  the  woodman  should  have 
once  formed  part  of  an  ancient  forest !  —  if,  after  first  exist- 
ing as  a  solid  mass  in  a  primary  rock,  it  should  next  have 
come  to  be  diffused  as  a  red  pigment  in  a  transition  conglom- 
erate—  then  as  a  brown  oxide  in  a  chalybeate  spring  —  then 
as  a  yellowish  ochre  in  a  secondary  sandstone — then  as  a 
component  part  in  the  stems  and  twigs  of  a  thick  forest  of 
arboraceous  plants  —  then  again  as  an  iron  carbonate,  slowly 
accumulating  at  the  bottom  of  a  morass  of  the  Coal  Meas- 
ures—  then  as  a  layer  of  indurated  bands  and  nodules  of 
brown  ore,  underlying  a  seam  of  coal  —  and  then,  finally, 
that  it  should  have  been  dug  out,  and  smelted,  and  fashioned, 
and  employed  for  the  purpose  of  handicraft,  and  yet  occupy, 
even  at  this  stage,  merely  a  middle  place  between  the  trans- 
migrations which  have  passed,  and  the  changes  which  are  yet 
to  come.  Crystals  of  galena  sometimes  occur  in  the  nodu- 
lar limestones  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  ;  but  I  am  afraid 
the  chemist  would  find  it  difficult  to  fix  their  probable 
genealogy. 

In  at  least  one  respect,  every  geological  history  must  of 
necessity  be  unsatisfactory ;  and,  ere  I  pass  to  the  history  of 
the  two  upper  formations  of  the  system,  the  reader  must  per- 
mit me  to  remind  him  of  it.  There  have  been  individuals,  it 
has  been  said,  who,  though  they  could  see  clearly  the  forms 
of  objects,  wanted,  through  some  strange  organic  defect,  the 


238 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


faculty  of  perceiving  their  distinguishing  colors,  however 
well  marked  these  might  be.  The  petals  of  the  rose  have 
appeared  to  them  of  the  same  sombre  hue  with  its  stalk ;  and 
they  have  regarded  the  ripe  scarlet  cherry  as  undistinguisha- 
ble  in  tint  from  the  green  leaves  under  which  it  hung.  The 
face  of  nature  to  such  men  must  have  for  ever  rested  under 
a  cloud  ;  and  a  cloud  of  similar  character  hangs  over  the  pic- 
torial restorations  of  the  geologist.  The  history  of  this  and 
the  last  chapter  is  a  mere  profile  drawn  in  black,  an  outline 
without  color — in  short,  such  a  chronicle  of  past  ages  as 
might  be  reconstructed,  in  the  lack  of  other  and  ampler  ma- 
terials, from  tombstones  and  charnel-houses.  I  have  had  to 
draw  the  portrait  from  the  skeleton.  My  specimens  show 
the  general  form  of  the  creatures  I  attempt  to  describe,  and 
not  a  few  of  their  more  marked  peculiarities  ;  but  many  of 
the  nicer  elegancies  are  wanting ;  and  the  "  complexion  to 
which  they  have  come  "  leaves  no  trace  by  which  to  discover 
the  complexion  they  originally  bore.  And  yet  color  is  a 
mighty  matter  to  the  ichthyologist.  The  "  fins  and  shining 
scales,"  "  the  waved  coats,  dropt  with  gold,"  the  rainbow 
dyes  of  beauty  of  the  watery  tribes,  are  connected  often  with 
more  than  mere  external  character.  It  is  a  curious  and  in- 
teresting fact,  that  the  hues  of  splendor  in  which  they  are 
bedecked  are,  in  some  instances,  as  intimately  associated 
with  their  instincts  —  with  their  feelings,  if  I  may  so  speak  — 
as  the  blush  which  suffuses  the  human  countenance  is  asso- 
ciated with  the  sense  of  shame,  or  its  tint  of  ashy  paleness  or 
of  sallow  with  emotions  of  rage,  or  feelings  of  a  panic  ter- 
ror. Pain  and  triumph  have  each  their  index  of  color  among 
the  mute  inhabitants  of  our  seas  and  rivers.  Poets  themselves 
have  bewailed  the  utter  inadequacy  of  words  to  describe  the 
varying  tints  and  shades  of  beauty  with  which  the  agonies  of 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


239 


death  dye  the  scales  of  the  dolphin,  and  how  every  various 
pang  calls  up  a  various  suffusion  of  splendor.*  Even  the 
common  stickleback  of  our  ponds  and  ditches  can  put  on  its 
colors  to  picture  its  emotions.  There  is,  it  seems,  a  mighty 
amount  of  ambition,  and  a  vast  deal  of  fighting  sheerly  for 
conquests'  sake,  among  the  myriads  of  this  pygmy  little  fish 


*  The  description  of  Falconer  must  be  familiar  to  every  reader,  but 
I  cannot  resist  quoting  it.  It  shows  how  minutely  the  sailor  poet 
must  have  observed.    Byron  tells  us  how 

"Parting  day 
Dies  like  the  dolphin,  whom  each  pang  imbues 
"With  a  new  color,  as  it  gasps  away, 
The  last  still  loveliest,  till  —  tis  gone,  and  all  is  gray." 

Falconer,  in  anticipating,  reversed  the  simile.  The  huge  animal, 
struck  by  the  "  unerring  barb  "  of  Rodmond,  has  been  drawn  on  board, 
and 

*'  On  deck  he  struggles  with  convulsive  pain  ; 
But  while  his  heart  the  fatal  javelin  thrills, 
And  flitting  life  escapes  in  sanguine  rills, 
What  radiant  changes  strike  the  astonished  sight ! 
What  glowing  hues  of  mingled  shade  and  light ! 
Not  equal  beauties  gild  the  lucid  West 
With  parting  beams  o'er  all  profusely  drest  ; 
Not  lovelier  colors  paint  the  vernal  dawn, 
When  Orient  dews  impearl  the  enamelled  lawn ; 
Than  from  his  sides  in  bright  suffusion  flow, 
That  now  with  gold  empyreal  seem  to  glow ; 
Now  in  pellucid  sapphires  meet  the  view, 
And  emulate  the  soft  celestial  hue ; 
Now  beam  a  flaming  crimson  on  the  eye, 
And  now  assume  the  purple's  deeper  dye. 
But  here  description  clouds  each  shining  ray  — 
What  terms  of  art  can  Nature's  powers  display  ?  " 


240 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


which  inhabit  our  smaller  streams ;  and  no  sooner  does  an 
individual  succeed  in  expelling  his  weaker  companions  from 
some  eighteen  inches  or  two  feet  of  territory,  than  straight  ^ 
way  the  exultation  of  conquest  converts  the  faded  and 
freckled  olive  of  his  back  and  sides  into  a  glow  of  crimson 
and  bright  green.  Nature  furnishes  him  with  a  regal  robe  for 
the  occasion.  Immediately  on  his  deposition,  however,  — 
and  events  of  this  kind  are  even  more  common  under  than 
out  of  the  water,  —  his  gay  colors  disappear,  and  he  sinks 
into  his  original  and  native  ugliness.* 

But  of  color,  as  I  have  said,  though  thus  important,  the 
ichthyologist  can  learn  almost  nothing  from  Geology.  The 
perfect  restoration  of  even  a  Cuvier  are  blank  outlines.  We 
just  know  by  a  wonderful  accident  that  the  Siberian  ele- 
phant was  red.  A  very  few  of  the  original  tints  still  remain 
among  the  fossils  of  our  north  country  Lias.    The  ammonite, 


*  "In  the  Magazine  of  Natural  History"  says  Captain  Brown,  in 
one  of  his  notes  to  White's  Se^orne,  "  we  have  a  curious  account  of 
the  pugnacious  propensities  of  these  little  animals.  '  Having  at  vari- 
ous times/  says  a  correspondent, '  kept  these  little  fish  during  the  spring 
and  part  of  the  summer  months,  and  paid  close  attention  to  their  habits. 
I  am  enabled  from  my  own  experience  to  vouch  for  the  facts  I  am  about 
to  relate.  I  have  frequently  kept  them  in  a  deal  tub,  about  three  feet 
two  inches  wide,  and  about  two  feet  deep.  When  they  are  put  in  for 
some  time,  probably  a  day  or  two,  they  swim  about  in  a  shoal,  apparent- 
ly exploring  their  new  habitation.  Suddenly  one  will  take  possession 
of  the  tub,  or,  as  it  will  sometimes  happen,  the  bottom,  and  will  instant- 
ly commence  an  attack  upon  his  companions  ;  and  if  any  of  them 
venture  to  oppose  his  sway,  a  regular  and  most  furious  battle  ensues. 
They  swim  round  and  round  each  other  with  the  greatest  rapidity, 
biting,  (their  mouths  being  well  furnished  with  teeth,)  and  endeavor- 
ing to  pierce  each  other  with  their  lateral  spines,  which,  on  this  occa- 
sion, are  projected.   I  have  witnessed  a  battle  of  this  sort  which  lasted 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


241 


when  struck  fresh  from  the  surrounding  lime,  reflects  the  pris- 
matic colors,  as  of  old  ;  a  huge  Modiola  still  retains  its  tinge 
of  tawny  and  yellow;  and  the  fossilized  wood  of  the  forma- 
tion preserves  a  shade  of  the  native  tint,  though  darkened 
into  brown.  But  there  is  considerably  less  of  color  in  the 
fossils  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone.  I  have  caught,  and  barely 
caught,  in  some  of  the  newly  disinterred  specimens,  the  faint 
and  evanescent  reflection  of  a  tinge  of  pearl  ;  and  were  I  ac- 
quainted with  my  own  collection  only,  imagination,  borrowing 
from  the  prevailing  color,  would  be  apt  to  people  the  ancient 
oceans,  in  which  its  forms  existed,  with  swarthy  races  exclu- 
sively. But  a  view  of  the  Altyre  fossils  would  correct  the 
impression.  They  are  enclosed,  like  those  of  Cromarty,  in 
nodules  of  an  argillaceous  limestone.  The  color,  however, 
from  the  presence  of  iron,  and  the  absence  of  bitumen,  is 
different.    It  presents  a  mixture  of  gray,  of  pink,  and  of 


several  minutes  before  either  would  give  way ;  and  when  one  does 
submit,  imagination  can  hardly  conceive  the  vindictive  fury  of  the 
conqueror,  who,  in  the  most  persevering  and  unrelenting  way,  chases 
his  rival  from  one  part  of  the  tub  to  another,  until  fairly  exhausted 
with  fatigue.  From  this  period  an  interesting  change  takes  place  in 
the  conqueror,  who,  from  being  a  speckled  and  greenish-looking  fish, 
assumes  the  most  beautiful  colors  ;  the  belly  and  lower  jaws  becoming 
a  deep  crimson,  and  the  back  sometimes  a  cream  color,  but  gener- 
ally a  fine  green,  and  the  whole  appearance  full  of  animation  and 
spirit.  I  have  occasionally  known  three  or  four  parts  of  the  tub 
taken  possession  of  by  these  little  tyrants,  who  guard  their  ter- 
ritories with  the  strictest  vigilance,  and  the  slightest  invasion 
brings  on  invariably  a  battle.  A  strange  alteration  immediately 
takes  place  in  the  defeated  party :  his  gallant  bearing  forsakes 
him,  his  gay  colors  fade  away,  he  becomes  again  speckled  and 
ugly,  and  he  hides  his  disgrace  among  his  peaceable  compan- 
ions. '  " 

21 


242 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


brown  ;  and  on  this  ground  the  fossil  is  spread  out  in  strongly 
contrasted  masses  of  white  and  dark  red,  of  blue,  and  of  pur- 
ple. Where  the  exuviae  lie  thickest,  the  white  appears  tinged 
with  delicate  blue  — the  bone  is  but  little  changed.  Where 
they  are  spread  out  more  thinly,  the  iron  has  pervaded  them, 
and  the  purple  and  deep  red  prevail.  Thus  the  same  ich- 
thyolite  presents,  in  some  specimens,  a  body  of  white  and 
plum-blue  attached  to  fins  of  deep  red,  and  with  detached 
scales  of  red  and  of  purple  lying  scattered  around  it.  I  need 
hardly  add,  however,  that  all  this  variety  of  coloring  is,  like 
the  unvaried  black  of  the  Cromarty  specimens,  the  result, 
merely,  of  a  curious  chemistry. 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


243 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

The  Cornstone  Formation  and  its  Organisms.  —  Dwarf  Vegetation.  — 
Cephalaspides.  —  Huge  Lobster.  —  Habitats  of  the  existing  Crusta- 
cea. —  No  unapt  representation  of  the  Deposit  of  Balruddery,  fur- 
nished by  a  land-locked  Bay  in  the  neighborhood  of  Cromarty.  — 
Vast  Space  occupied  by  the  Geological  Formations.  —  Contrasted 
with  the  half-formed  Deposits  which  represent  the  existing  Crea- 
tion. —  Inference.  —  The  formation  of  the  lloloptychius.  —  Probable 
origin  of  its  Siliceous  Limestone.  — Marked  increase  in  the  Bulk  of 
the  Existences  of  the  System.  —  Conjectural  Cause. — The  Coal 
Measures.  —  The  Limestone  of  Burdie  House  Conclusion. 

The  curtain  rises,  and  the  scene  is  new.  The  myriads  of 
the  lower  formation  have  disappeared,  and  we  are  surrounded, 
on  an  upper  platform,  by  the  existences  of  a  later  creation. 
There  is  sea  all  around,  as  before  ;  and  we  find  beneath  a 
dark-colored,  muddy  bottom,  thickly  covered  by  a  dwarf  vege- 
tation. The  circumstances  diner  little  from  those  in  which 
the  ichthyolite  beds  of  the  preceding  period  were  deposited  ; 
but  forms  of  life,  essentially  different,  career  through  the 
green  depths,  or  creep  over  the  ooze.  Shoals  of  Cephalas- 
pides, with  their  broad,  arrow-like  heads,  and  their  slender, 
angular  bodies,  feathered  with  fins,  sweep  past  like  clouds  of 
crossbow  bolts  in  an  ancient  battle.  We  see  the  distant 
gleam  of  scales,  but  the  forms  are  indistinct  and  dim  :  we  can 
merely  ascertain  that  the  fins  are  elevated  by  spines  of  vari- 
ous shape  and  pattern  ;  that  of  some  the  coats  glitter  with 
enamel ;  and  that  others  —  the  sharks  of  this  ancient  period  — 
bristle  over  with  minute  thorny  points.  A  huge  crustacean, 
of  uncouth  proportions,  stalks  over  the  weedy  bottom,  or  bur- 
rows  in  the  hollows  of  the  banks. 


244 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


Let  us  attempt  bringing  our  knowledge  of  the  present  to 
bear  upon  the  past.  The  larger  Crustacea:  of  the  British  seas 
abound  most  on  iron-bound  coasts,  where  they  find  sheltering 
places  in  the  deeper  fisures  of  sea-cliffs  covered  up  by  kelp 
and  tangle,  or  under  the  lower  edges  of  detached  boulders, 
that  rest  unequally  on  uneven  platforms  of  rock,  amid  for- 
ests of  the  rough-stemmed  cuvy.  We  may  traverse  sandy 
or  muddy  shores  for  miles  together,  without  rinding  a  single 
crab,  unless  a  belt  of  pebbles  lines  the  upper  zone  of  beach, 
where  the  forked  and  serrated  fuci  first  appear,  or  a  few 
weed-covered  fragments  of  rock  here  and  there  occur  in 
groups  on  the  lower  zones.  In  this  formation,  however,  the 
bottom  must  have  been  formed  of  mingled  sand  and  mud, 
and  yet  the  Crustacea  were  abundant.  How  account  for  the 
fact  ?  There  is,  in  most  instances,  an  interesting  conformity 
between  the  character  of  the  ancient  rocks,  in  which  we  find 
groups  of  peculiar  fossils,  and  the  habitats  of  those  existences 
of  the  present  creation  which  these  fossils  most  resemble. 
The  fisherman  casts  his  nets  in  a  central  hollow  of  the  Moray 
Frith,  about  thirty  fathoms  in  depth,  and  draws  them  up  foul 
with  masses  of  a  fetid  mud,  charged  with  multitudes  of  that 
curious  purple-colored  zoophyte  the  sea-pen,  invariably  an 
inhabitant  of  such  recesses.  The  graptolite  of  the  most 
ancient  fossiliferous  rocks,  an  existence  of  unequivocally  the 
same  type,  occurs  in  greatest  abundance  in  a  finely-levigated 
mudstone,  for  it,  too,  was  a  dweller  in  the  mud.  In  like  man- 
ner, wre  may  find  the  ancient  Modiola  of  the  Lias  in  habitats 
analogous  to  those  of  its  modern  representative  the  muscle, 
and  the  cncrinite  of  the  Mountain  Limestone  fast  rooted  to 
its  rocky  platform,  just  as  we  may  see  the  Helianthoida  and 
Ascidioida  of  our  seas  fixed  to  their  boulders  and  rocky 
skerries.    But  is  not  analogy  at  fault  in  the  present  instance  ? 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


245 


Quite  the  reverse.  Mark  how  thickly  these  carbonaceous 
impressions  cover  the  muddy-colored  and  fissile  sandstones 
of  the  formation,  giving  evidence  of  an  abundant  vegetation. 
We  may  learn  from  these  obscure  markings,  that  the  place 
in  which  they  grew  could  have  been  no  unfit  habitat  for  the 
crustaceous  tribes. 

There  is  a  little,  land-locked  bay  on  the  southern  shore  of 
the  Frith  of  Cromarty,  effectually  screened  from  the  easterly 
winds  by  the  promontory  on  which  the  town  is  built,  and  but 
little  affected  by  those  of  any  other  quarter,  from  the  proxim- 
ity of  the  neighboring  shores.  The  bottom,  at  low  ebb,  pre- 
sents a  level  plain  of  sand,  so  thickly  covered  by  the  green 
grass-weed  of  our  more  sheltered  sandy  bays  and  estuaries, 
that  it  presents  almost  the  appearance  of  a  meadow.  The 
roots  penetrate  the  sand  to  the  depth  of  nearly  a  foot,  binding 
it  firmly  together ;  and  as  they  have  grown  and  decayed  in  it 
for  centuries,  it  has  acquired,  from  the  disseminated  particles 
of  vegetable  matter,  a  deep  leaden  tint,  more  nearly  ap- 
proaching to  black  than  even  the  dark  gray  mudstones  of 
Balruddery.  Nor  is  this  the  only  effect :  the  intertwisted 
fibres  impart  to  it  such  coherence,  that,  where  scooped  out 
into  pools,  the  edges  stand  up  perpendicular  from  the  water, 
like  banks  of  clay ;  and  where  these  are  hollowed  into  cave- 
like recesses,  —  and  there  are  few  of  them  that  are  not  so 
hollowed,  —  the  recesses  remain  unbroken  and  unfilled  for 
years.  The  weeds  have  imparted  to  the  sand  a  character 
different  from  its  own,  and  have  rendered  it  a  suitable  hab- 
itat for  numerous  tribes,  which,  in  other  circumstances,  would 
have  found  no  shelter  in  it.  Now,  among  these  we  find  in 
abundance  the  larger  crustaceans  of  our  coasts.  The  brown 
edible  crab  harbors  in  the  hollows  beside  the  pools  ;  occasion- 
ally we  may  find  in  them  an  overgrown  lobster,  studded  with 
21* 


246 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


parasitical  shells  and  zoophytes  —  proof  that  the  creature, 
having  attained  its  full  size,  has  ceased  to  cast  its  plated  cov- 
ering. Crustaceans  of  the  smaller  varieties  abound.  Her- 
mit crabs  traverse  the  pools,  or  creep  among  the  weed  ;  the 
dark  green  and  the  dingy,  hump- backed  crabs  occur  nearly 
as  frequently ;  the  radiata  cover  the  banks  by  thousands. 
We  find  occasionally  the  remains  of  dead  fish  left  by  the  re- 
treating tide  ;  but  the  living  are  much  more  numerous  than 
the  dead  ;  for  the  sand-eel  has  suffered  the  water  to  retire, 
and  yet  remained  behind  in  its  burrow  ;  and  the  viviparous 
blenny  and  common  gunnel  still  shelter  beside  their  fuci- 
covered  masses  of  rock.  Imagine  the  bottom  of  this  little  bay 
covered  up  by  thick  beds  of  sand  and  gravel,  and  the  whole 
consolidated  into  stone,  and  we  have  in  it  all  the  conditions 
of  the  deposit  of  Balruddery  —  a  mud-colored,  arenaceous 
deposit,  abounding  in  vegetable  impressions,  and  enclosing 
numerous  remains  of  crustaceans,  fish,  and  radiata,  as  its 
characteristic  organisms  of  the  animal  kingdom.  There 
would  be  but  one  circumstance  of  difference  :  the  little  bay 
abounds  in  shells  ;  whereas  no  shells  have  yet  been  found  in 
the  mudstones  of  Balruddery,  or  the  gray  sandstones  of 
the  same  formation,  which  in  Forfar,  Fife,  and  Moray  shires 
represent  the  Cornstone  division  of  the  system. 

Ages  and  centuries  passed,  but  who  can  sum  up  their  num- 
ber ?  In  England,  the  depth  of  this  middle  formation  greatly 
exceeds  that  of  any  of  the  other  two  ;  in  Scotland,  it  is  much 
less  amply  developed  ;  but  in  either  country  it  must  rep- 
resent periods  of  scarce  conceivable  extent.  I  have  listened 
to  the  controversies  of  opposite  schools  of  geologists,  who, 
from  the  earth's  strata,  extract  registers  of  the  earth's  age  of 
an  amount  amazingly  different.  One  class,  regarding  the 
geological  field  as  if  under  the  influence  of  those  principles 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


247 


of  perspective  which  give  to  the  cottage  in  front  more  than 
the  bulk  and  altitude  of  the  mountain  behind,  would  assign  to 
the  present  scene  of  things  its  thousands  of  years,  but  to  all 
the  extinct  periods  united  merely  their  few  centuries  ;  while 
with  their  opponents,  the  remoter  periods  stretch  out  far  into 
the  bygone  eternity,  and  the  present  scene  seems  but  a  nar- 
row strip  running  along  the  foreground. '  Both  classes  appeal 
to  facts  ;  and,  leaving  them  to  their  disputes,  I  have  gone  out 
to  examine  and  judge  for  myself.  The  better  to  compare  the 
present  with  the  past,  I  have  regarded  the  existing  scene 
merely  as  a  formation  —  not  as  superficies,  but  as  depth; 
and  have  sought  to  ascertain  the  extent  to  which,  in  different 
localities,  and  under  different  circumstances,  it  has  overlaid 
the  surface. 

The  slopes  of  an  ancient  forest  incline  towards  a  river  that 
flows  sluggishly  onwards  through  a  deep  alluvial  plain,  once 
an  extensive  lake.  A  recent  landslip  has  opened  up  one  of 
the  hanging  thickets.  Uprooted  trees,  mingled  with  bushes, 
lie  at  the  foot  of  the  slope,  half  buried  in  broken  masses  of 
turf ;  and  we  see  above  a  section  of  the  soil,  from  the  line  of 
vegetation  to  the  bare  rock.  There  is  an  under  belt  of  clay, 
and  an  upper  belt  of  gravel,  neither  of  which  contains  any 
thing  organic  ;  and  overtopping  the  whole  we  may  see  a  dark- 
colored  bar  of  mould,  barely  a  foot  in  thickness,  studded 
with  stumps  and  interlaced  with  roots.  Mark  that  narrow 
bar  :  it  is  the  geological  representative  of  six  thousand  years. 
A  stony  bar  of  similar  appearance  runs  through  the  strata  of 
the  Wealden  :  it,  too,  has  its  dingy  color,  its  stumps,  and  its 
interlacing  roots  ;  but  it  forms  only  a  very  inconsiderable 
portion  of  one  of  the  least  considerable  of  all  the  formations ; 
and  yet  who  shall  venture  to  say  that  it  does  not  represent  a 
period  as  extended  as  that  represented  by  the  dark  bar  in  the 


248 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


ancient  forest,  seeing  there  is  not  a  circumstance  of  difference 
between  them  ? 

We  descend  to  the  river  side.  The  incessant  action  of  the 
current  has  worn  a  deep  channel  through  the  leaden-colored 
silt ;  the  banks  stand  up  perpendicularly  over  the  water,  and 
downwards,  for  twenty  feet  together,  —  for  such  is  the  depth 
of  the  deposit,  —  we  may  trace  layer  after  layer  of  reeds, 
and  flags,  and  fragments  of  driftwood,  and  find  here  and 
there  a  few  fresh- water  shells  of  the  existing  species.  In 
this  locality,  six  thousand  years  are  represented  by  twenty 
feet.  The  depth  of  the  various  fossiliferous  formations  united 
is  at  least  fifteen  hundred  times  as  great. 

We  pursue  our  walk,  and  pass  through  a  morass.  Three 
tiers  of  forest  trees  appear  in  the  section  laid  open  by  the 
stream,  the  one  above  the  other.  Overlying  these  there  is  a 
congeries  of  the  remains  of  aquatic  plants,  which  must  have 
grown  and  decayed  on  the  spot  for  many  ages  after  the  soil 
had  so  changed  that  trees  could  be  produced  by  it  no  longer; 
and  over  the  whole  there  occur  layers  of  mosses,  that  must 
have  found  root  on  the  surface  after  the  waters  had  been 
drained  away  by  the  deepening  channel  of  the  river.  The 
six  thousand  years  are  here  represented  by  that  morass,  its 
three  succeeding  forests,  its  beds  of  aquatic  vegetation,  its 
bands  of  moss,  and  the  thin  stratum  of  soil  which  overlies 
the  whole.  Well,  but  it  forms,  notwithstanding,  only  the 
mere  beginning  of  a  formation.  Pile  up  twenty  such  mo- 
rasses, the  one  over  the  other ;  separate  them  by  a  hundred 
such  bands  of  alluvial  silt  as  we  have  just  examined  a  little 
higher  up  the  stream  ;  throw  in  some  forty  or  fifty  thick  beds 
of  sand  to  swell  the  amount ;  and  the  whole  together  will  but 
barely  equal  the  Coal  Measures,  one  of  many  formations. 

But  the  marine  deposits  of  the  present  creation  have  been, 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


249 


perhaps,  accumulating  more  rapidly  than  those  of  our  lakes, 
forests,  or  rivers  ?  Yes,  unquestionably,  in  friths  and  estua- 
ries, in  the  neighborhood  of  streams  that  drain  vast  tracts  of 
country,  and  roll  down  the  soil  and  clay  swept  by  the  winter 
rains  from  thousands  of  hill-sides  ;  but  what  is  there  to  lead 
to  the  formation  of  sudden  deposits  in  those  profounder  depths 
of  the  sea,  in  which  the  water  retains  its  blue  transparency 
all  the  year  round,  let  the  waves  rise  as  they  may  ?  And  do 
we  not  know  that,  along  many  of  our  shores,  the  process  of 
accumulation  is  well  nigh  as  slow  as  on  the  land  itself?  The 
existing  creation  is  represented  in  the  little  land-locked  bay, 
where  the  Crustacea  harbor  so  thickly,  by  a  deposit  hardly 
three  feet  in  thickness.  In  a  more  exposed  locality,  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  promontory,  it  finds  its  representative  in 
a  deposit  of  barely  nine  inches.  It  is  surely  the  present  scene 
of  things  that  is  in  its  infancy  !  Into  how  slender  a  bulk 
have  the  organisms  of  six  thousand  years  been  compressed  ! 
History  tells  us  of  populous  nations,  now  extinct,  that  flour- 
ished for  ages  :  do  we  not  find  their  remains  crowded  into  a 
few  streets  of  sepulchres  ?  'Tis  but  a  thin  layer  of  soil  that 
covers  the  ancient  plain  of  Marathon.  I  have  stood  on  Ban- 
nockburn,  and  seen  no  trace  of  the  battle.  In  what  lower 
stratum  shall  we  set  ourselves  to  discover  the  skeletons  of  the 
wolves  and  bears  that  once  infested  our  forests  ?  Where 
shall  we  find  accumulations  of  the  remains  of  the  wild  bisons 
and  gigantic  elks,  their  contemporaries  ?  They  must  have 
existed  for  but  comparatively  a  short  period,  or  they  would 
surely  have  left  more  marked  traces  behind  them. 

When  we  appeal  to  the  historians,  we  hear  much  of  a  re- 
mote antiquity  in  the  history  of  man  :  a  more  than  twilight 
gloom  pervades  the  earlier  periods ;  and  the  distances  are 
exaggerated,  as  objects  appear  large  in  a  fog.    We  measure, 


250 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


too,  by  a  minute  scale.  There  is  a  tacit  reference  to  the 
threescore  and  ten  years  of  human  life  ;  and  its  term  of  a 
day  appears  long  to  the  ephemera.  We  turn  from  the  histo- 
rians to  the  prophets,  and  find  the  dissimilarity  of  style  indi- 
cating a  different  speaker.  EzekiePs  measuring-reed  is  grad- 
uated into  cubits  of  the  temple.  The  vast  periods  of  the 
short-lived  historian  dwindled  down  into  weeks  and  days. 
Seventy  weeks  indicated  to  Daniel,  in  the  first  year  of  Darius, 
the  time  of  the  Messiah's  coming.  Three  years  and  a  half 
limit  the  term  of  the  Mohammedan  delusion.  Seventeen 
years  have  not  yet  gone  by  since  Adam  first  arose  from  the 
mould  ;  nor  has  the  race,  as  such,  attained  to  the  maturity  of 
even  early  manhood.  But  while  prophecy  sums  up  merely 
weeks  and  days,  when  it  refers  to  the  past,  it  looks  forward 
into  the  future,  and  speaks  of  a  thousand  years.  Are  scales 
of  unequally  graduated  parts  ever  used  in  measuring  different 
portions  of  the  same  map  or  section  —  scales  so  very  une- 
qually graduated,  that,  while  the  parts  in  some  places  expand 
to  the  natural  size,  they  are  in  others  more  than  three  hun- 
dred times  diminished  ?  If  not,  —  for  what  save  inextricable 
confusion  would  result  from  their  use,  —  how  avoid  the  con- 
clusion, that  the  typical  scale  employed  in  the  same  book  by 
the  same  prophet  represents  similar  quantities  by  correspond- 
ing parts,  whether  applied  to  times  of  outrage,  delusion,  and 
calamity,  or  set  off  against  that  long  and  happy  period  in 
which  the  spirit  of  evil  shall  be  bound  in  chains  and  dark- 
ness, and  the  kingdom  of  Christ  shall  have  come  ?  And  if 
such  be  the  case  —  if  each  single  year  of  the  thousand  years 
of  the  future  represents  a  term  as  extended  as  each  single 
year  of  the  seventeen  years  of  the  past  —  if  the  present 
scene  of  things  be  thus  merely  in  its  beginning  —  should  we  at 
all  wonder  to  find  that  the  formation  which  represents  it  has 
laid  down  merely  its  few  first  strata  ? 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


251 


The  curtain  again  rises.  A  last  day  had  at  length  come 
to  the  period  of  the  middle  formation ;  and  in  an  ocean 
roughened  by  waves,  and  agitated  by  currents,  like  the  ocean 
which  flowed  over  the  conglomerate  base  of  the  system,  we 
find  new  races  of  existences.  We  may  mark  the  clumsy 
bulk  of  the  Holoptychius  conspicuous  in  the  group  ;  the  shark 
family  have  their  representatives  as  before  ;  a  new  variety  of 
the  Ptericlithys  spreads  out  its  spear-like  wings  at  every 
alarm,  like  its  predecessors  of  the  lower  formation  ;  shoals  of 
fish  of  a  type  more  common,  but  still  unnamed  and  unde- 
scribed,  sport  amid  the  eddies ;  and  we  may  see  attached  to 
the  rocks  below  substances  of  uncouth  form  and  doubtful 
structure,  with  which  the  oryctologist  has  still  to  acquaint 
himself.  The  depositions  of  this  upper  ocean  are  of  a  mixed 
character :  the  beds  are  less  uniform  and  continuous  than  at  a 
greater  depth.  In  some  places  they  consist  exclusively  of  sand- 
stone, in  others  of  conglomerate  ;  and  yet  the  sandstone  and 
conglomerate  seem,  from  their  frequent  occurrence  on  the 
same  platform,  to  have  been  formed  simultaneously.  The 
transporting  and  depositing  agents  must  have  become  more 
partial  in  their  action  than  during  the  earlier  period.  They 
had  their  foci  of  strength  and  their  circumferences  of  com- 
parative weakness ;  and  while  the  heavier  pebbles  which 
composed  the  conglomerate  were  in  the  course  of  being  de- 
posited in  the  foci,  the  lighter  sand  which  composes  the  sand- 
stone was  settling  in  those  outer  skirts  by  which  the  foci  were 
surrounded.  At  this  stage,  too,  there  are  unequivocal  marks, 
in  the  northern  localities,  of  extensive  denudation.  The  older 
strata  are  cut  away  in  some  places  to  a  considerable  depth, 
and  newer  strata  of  the  same  formation  deposited  unconforma- 
bly  over  them.  There  must  have  been  partial  upheavings 
and  depressions,  corresponding  with  the  partial  character  of 


252 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


the  depositions  ;  and,  as  a  necessary  consequence,  frequent 
shiftings  of  currents.  The  ocean,  too,  seems  to  have  les- 
sened its  general  depth,  and  the  bottom  to  have  lain  more  ex- 
posed to  the  influence  of  the  waves.  And  hence  one  cause, 
added  to  the  porous  nature  of  the  matrix,  and  the  diffused 
oxide,  of  the  detached,  and,  if  I  may  so  express  myself, 
churchyard  character  of  its  organisms. 

Above  the  blended  conglomerates  and  sandstones  of  this 
band  a  deposition  of  lime  took  place.  Thermal  springs, 
charged  with  calcareous  matter  slightly  mixed  with  silex,  seem 
to  have  abounded,  during  the  period  which  it  represents,  over 
widely-extended  areas  ;  and  hence,  probably,  its  origin.  An 
increase  of  heat  from  beneath,  through  some  new  activity 
imparted  to  the  Plutonic  agencies,  would  be  of  itself  sufficient 
to  account  for  the  formation.  I  have  resided  in  a  district  in 
which  almost  every  spring  was  charged  with  calcareous  earth  ; 
but  in  cisterns  or  draw-wells,  or  the  utensils  in  which  the 
housewife  stored  up  for  use  the  water  which  these  supplied, 
no  deposition  took  place.  With  boilers  and  tea-kettles,  how- 
ever, the  case  was  different.  The  agency  of  heat  was 
brought  to  operate  upon  these  ;  and  their  sides  and  bottoms 
were  covered,  in  consequence,  with  a  thick  crust  of  lime. 
Now,  we  have  but  to  apply  the  simple  principles  on  which 
such  phenomena  occur,  to  account  for  widely-spread  precipi- 
tates of  the  same  earth  by  either  springs  or  seas,  which  at 
a  lower  temperature  would  have  been  active  in  the  forma- 
tion of  mechanical  deposits  alone.  The  temperature  sunk 
gradually  to  its  former  state  ;  the  purely  chemical  deposit 
ceased  ;  the  waters  became  populous  as  before  with  animals 
of  the  same  character  and  appearance  as  those  of  the  up- 
per conglomerate  ;  and  layer  after  layer  of  yellow  sand- 
stone, to  the  depth  of  several  hundred  feet,  were  formed  as 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


253 


the  period  passed.  With  this  upper  deposit  the  system 
terminated. 

Though  fish  still  remained  the  lords  of  creation,  and  fish 
of  apparently  no  superior  order  to  those  with  which  .the  ver- 
tebrata  began  at  least  three  formations  earlier,  they  had 
mightily  advanced  in  one  striking  particular.  If  their  organ- 
ization was  in  no  degree  more  perfect  than  at  first,  their  bulk 
at  least  had  become  immensely  more  great.  The  period  had 
gone  by  in  which  a  mediocrity  of  dimension  characterized 
the  existences  of  the  ancient  oceans,  and  fish  armed  offen- 
sively and  defensively  with  scales  and  teeth  scarcely  inferior 
in  size  to  the  scales  and  teeth  of  the  gavial  or  the  alligator, 
sprung  into  existence.  It  must  have  been  a  large  jaw  and  a 
large  head  that  contained,  doubtless  among  many  others,  a 
tooth  an  inch  in  diameter  at  the  base.  I  may  remark,  in  the 
passing,  that  most  of  the  teeth  found  in  the  several  forma- 
tions of  the  system  are  not  instruments  of  mastication,  but, 
like  those  in  most  of  the  existing  fish,  mere  hooks  for 
penetrating  slippery  substances,  and  thus  holding  them  fast. 
The  rude  angler  who  first  fashioned  a  crooked  bone,  or  a  bit 
of  native  silver  or  copper,  into  a  hook,  might  have  found  his 
invention  anticipated  in  the  jaws  of  the  first  fish  he  drew 
ashore  by  its  means ;  and  we  find  the  hook  structure  as  com- 
plete in  the  earlier  ichthyolites  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone  as 
in  the  fish  that  exist  now.  The  evidence  of  the  geologist  is 
of  necessity  circumstantial  evidence,  and  he  need  look  for 
none  other ;  but  it  is  interesting  to  observe  how  directly  the 
separate  facts  bear,  in  many  examples,  on  one  and  the  same 
point.  The  hooked  and  slender  teeth  tell  exactly  the  same 
story  with  the  undigested  scales  in  the  foecal  remains  alluded 
to  in  an  early  chapter. 

In  what  could  this  increase  in  bulk  have  originated  ?  Is 
there  a  high  but  yet  comparatively  medium  temperature  in 
22 


254 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


which  animals  attain  their  greatest  size,  and  corresponding 
gradations  of  descent  on  both  sides,  whether  we  increase  the 
heat  until  we  reach  the  point  at  which  life  can  no  longer 
exist,  or  diminish  it  until  we  arrive  at  the  same  result  from 
intensity  of  cold  ?  The  line  of  existence  bisects  on  both  sides 
the  line  of  extinction.  May  it  not  probably  form  a  curve, 
descending  equally  from  an  elevated  centre  to  the  points  of 
bisection  on  the  level  of  death  ?  But  whatever  may  have 
been  the  cause,  the  change  furnishes  another  instance  of 
analogy  between  the  progress  of  individuals  and  of  orders. 
The  shark  and  the  sword-fish  begin  to  exist  as  little  creatures 
of  a  span  in  length  ;  they  expand  into  monsters  whose  bodies 
equal  in  hugeness  the  trunks  of  ancient  oaks ;  and  thus  has 
it  been  with  the  order  to  which  they  belong.  The  teeth, 
spines,  and  palatal  bones  of  the  fish  of  the  Upper  Ludlow 
Rocks  are  of  almost  microscopic  minuteness  ;  an  invariable 
mediocrity  of  dimension  characterizes  the  ichthyolites  of  the 
Lower  Old  Red  Sandstone  ;  a  marked  increase  in  size  takes 
place  among  the  existences  of  the  middle  formation  ;  in  the 
upper  the  bulky  Holoptychius  appears ;  the  close  of  the  sys- 
tem ushers  in  the  still  bulkier  Megalichthys  ;  and  low  in  the 
Coal  Measures  we  find  the  ponderous  bones,  buckler-like 
scales,  and  enormons  teeth  of  another  and  immensely  more 
gigantic  Holoptychius — a  creature  pronounced  by  Agassiz 
the  largest  of  all  osseous  fish.*  We  begin  with  an  age  of 
dwarfs  —  we  end  with  an  age  of  giants.  The  march  of  Nature 
is  an  onward  and  an  ascending  march  ;  the  stages  are  slow, 
but  the  tread  is  stately ;  and  to  Him  who  has  commanded, 


*  There  have  been  fish  scales  found  in  Burdie  House  five  inches  in 
length,  by  rather  more  than  four  in  breadth.  Of  the  gigantic  Holop- 
tychius of  this  deposit  we  have  still  much  to  learn.  The  fragment  of 
a  jaw,  in  the  possession  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh,  which 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


255 


and  who  overlooks  it,  a  thousand  years  are  as  but  a  single 
day,  and  a  single  day  as  a  thousand  years.* 

We  have  entered  the  Coal  Measures.  For  seven  forma- 
tions together  —  from  the  Lower  Silurian  to  the  Upper  Old 
Red  Sandstone — our  course  has  lain  over  oceans  without  a 
visible  shore,  though,  like  Columbus,  in  his  voyage  of  dis- 
covery, we  have  now  and  then  found  a  little  floating  weed,  to 
indicate  the  approaching  coast.  The  water  is  fast  shallow- 
ing. Yonder  passes  a  broken  branch,  with  the  leaves  still 
unwithered  ;  and  there  floats  a  tuft  of  fern.  Land,  from  the 
mast-head  !  land  !  land  !  —  a  low  shore,  thickly  covered  with 
vegetation.  Huge  trees,  of  wonderful  form,  stand  out  far 
into  the  water.  There  seems  no  intervening  beach.  A  thick 
hedge  of  reeds,  tall  as  the  masts  of  pinnaces,  runs  along  the 
deeper  bays,  like  water-flags  at  the  edge  of  a  lake.  A  river 
of  vast  volume  comes  rolling  from  the  interior,  darkening 
the  water  for  leagues  with  its  slime  and  mud,  and  bearing 
with  it,  to  the  open  sea,  reeds,  and  fern,  and  cones  of  the 
pine,  and  immense  floats  of  leaves,  and  now  and  then  some 
bulky  tree,  undermined  and  uprooted  by  the  current.  We 
near  the  coast,  and  now  enter  the  opening  of  the  stream.  A 
scarce  penetrable  phalanx  of  reeds,  that  attain  to  the  height 
and  well  nigh  the  bulk  of  forest  trees,  is  ranged  on  either  hand. 
The  bright  and  glossy  stems  seem  rodded  like  Gothic  col- 
umns ;  the  pointed  leaves  stand  out  green  at  every  joint,  tier 
above  tier,  each  tier  resembling  a  coronal  wreath  or  an  an- 
cient crown,  with  the  rays  turned  outwards ;  and  we  see  a-top 


belonged  to  an  individual  of  the  species,  is  18i  inches  in  length ;  and 
it  is  furnished  with  teeth,  one  of  which,  from  base  to  point,  measures 
five  inches,  and  another  four  and  a  half. 

*  See,  on  this  subject,  the  introductory  note  to  the  present  edition, 
and  note  p.  154. 


256 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


what  may  be  either  large  spikes  or  catkins.  What  strange 
forms  of  vegetable  life  appear  in  the  forest  behind  !  Can 
that  be  a  club-moss  that  raises  its  slender  height  for  more 
than  fifty  feet  from  the  soil  ?  Or  can  these  tall,  palm-like 
trees  be  actually  ferns,  and  these  spreading  branches  mere 
fronds  ?  And  then  these  gigantic  reeds  !  —  are  they  not 
mere  varieties  of  the  common  horse-tail  of  our  bogs  and  mo- 
rasses, magnified  some  sixty  or  a  hundred  times?  Have  we 
arrived  at  some  such  country  as  the  continent  visited  by  Gulli- 
ver, in  which  he  found  thickets  of  weeds  and  grass  tall  as  woods 
of  twenty  years'  growth,  and  lost  himself  amid  a  forest  of 
corn,  fifty  feet  in  height?  The  lesser  vegetation  of  our  own 
country,  reeds,  mosses,  and  ferns,  seems  here  as  if  viewed 
through  a  microscope  :  the  dwarfs  have  sprung  up  into  giants, 
and  yet  there  appears  to  be  no  proportional  increase  in  size 
among  what  are  unequivocally  its  trees.  Yonder  is  a  group 
of  what  seem  to  be  pines  —  tall  and  bulky,  'tis  true,  but 
neither  taller  nor  bulkier  than  the  pines  of  Norway  and 
America ;  and  the  club-moss  behind  shoots  up  its  green, 
hairy  arms,  loaded  with  what  seems  catkins  above  their  top- 
most cones.  But  what  monster  of  the  vegetable  world  comes 
floating  down  the  stream  —  now  circling  round  in  the  eddies, 
now  dancing  on  the  ripple,  now  shooting  down  the  rapid  ?  It 
resembles  a  gigantic  star-fish,  or  an  immense  coach-wheel, 
divested  of  the  rim.  There  is  a  green,  dome-like  mass  in  the 
centre,  that  corresponds  to  the  nave  of  the  wheel,  or  the 
body  of  the  star-fish  ;  and  the  boughs  shoot  out  horizontally 
on  every  side,  like  spokes  from  the  nave,  or  rays  from  the 
central  body.  The  diameter  considerably  exceeds  forty  feet ; 
the  branches,  originally  of  a  deep  green,  are  assuming  the 
golden  tinge  of  decay  ;  the  cylindrical  and  hollow  leaves 
stand  out  thick  on  every  side,  like  prickles  of  the  wild  rose  on 
the  red,  fleshy,  lance-like  shoots  of  a  year's  growth,  that  will 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


257 


be  covered,  two  seasons  hence,  with  flowers  and  fruit.  That 
strangely  formed  organism  presents  no  existing  type  among 
all  the  numerous  families  of  the  vegetable  kingdom.  There 
is  an  amazing  luxuriance  of  growth  all  around  us.  Scarce 
can  the  current  make  way  through  the  thickets  of  aquatic 
plants  that  rise  thick  from  the  muddy  bottom  ;  and  though 
the  sunshine  falls  bright  on  the  upper  boughs  of  the  tangled 
forest  beyond,  not  a  ray  penetrates  the  more  than  twilight 
gloom  that  broods  over  the  marshy  platform  below.  The 
rank  steam  of  decaying  vegetation  forms  a  thick  blue  haze, 
that  partially  obscures  the  underwood  ;  deadly  lakes  of  car- 
bonic acid  gas  have  accumulated  in  the  hollows  ;  there  is 
silence  all  around,  uninterrupted  save  by  the  sudden  splash 
of  some  reptile  fish  that  has  risen  to  the  surface  in  pursuit  of 
its  prey,  or  when  a  sudden  breeze  stirs  the  hot  air,  and  shakes 
the  fronds  of  the  giant  ferns  or  the  catkins  of  the  reeds. 
The  wide  continent  before  us  is  a  continent  devoid  of  animal 
life,  save  that  its  pools  and  rivers  abound  in  fish  and  mollus- 
ca,  and  that  millions  and  tens  of  millions  of  the  infusory 
tribes  swarm  in  the  bogs  and  marshes.  Here  and  there,  too, 
an  insect  of  strange  form  flutters  among  the  leaves.  It  is 
more  than  probable  that  no  creature  furnished  with  lungs  of 
the  more  perfect  construction  could  have  breathed  the  at- 
mosphere of  this  early  period,  and  have  lived. 

Doubts  have  been  entertained  whether  the  limestone  of 
Burdie  House  belongs  to  the  Upper  Old  Red  Sandstone  or  to 
the  inferior  Coal  Measures.  And  the  fact  may  yet  come  to 
be  quoted  as  a  very  direct  proof  of  the  ignorance  which  ob- 
tained regarding  the  fossils  of  the  older  formation,  at  a  time 
when  the  organisms  of  most  of  the  other  formations,  both 
above  and  below  it,  had  been  carefully  explored.  The  Lime- 
stone of  Burdie  House  is  unequivocally  and  most  character- 
istically a  Coal  Measure  limestone.  It  abounds  in  vegetable 
22* 


258 


THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


remains  of  terrestrial  or  lacustrine  growth,  and  these,  too, 
the  vegetables  common  to  the  Coal  Measures  —  ferns,  reeds, 
and  club-mosses.  One  can  scarce  detach  a  fragment  from 
the  mass,  that  has  not  its  leaflet  or  seed-cone  enclosed,  and 
in  a  state  of  such  perfect  preservation,  that  there  can  be  no 
possibility  of  mistaking  its  character.  If  in  reality  a  marine 
deposit,  it  must  have  been  formed  in  the  immediate  neighbor- 
hood of  a  land  covered  with  vegetation.  The  dove  set  loose 
by  Noah  bore  not  back  with  it  a  less  equivocal  sign  that  the 
waters  had  abated.  Now,  in  the  Upper  Old  Red  Sandstone 
none  of  these  plants  occur.  The  deposit  is  exclusively  an 
ocean  deposit,  and  the  remains  in  Scotland,  until  we  arrive  at 
its  inferior  and  middle  formations,  are  exclusively  animal  re- 
mains. Its  upper  member,  "  the  yellow  sandstone,"  says  Dr. 
Anderson,  of  Newburgh,  "  does  not  exhibit  a  single  particle 
of  carbonaceous  matter  —  no  trace  or  film  of  a  branch  hav- 
ing been  detected  in  it,  though,  if  such  in  reality  existed, 
there  are  not  wanting  opportunities  of  obtaining  specimens 
in  some  one  of  the  twenty  or  thirty  quarries  which  have  been 
opened  in  the  county  of  Fife  in  this  deposit  alone."  No  two 
bordering  formations  in  the  geological  scale  have  their  boun- 
daries better  defined  by  the  character  of  their  fossils  than  the 
Old  Red  Sandstone  and  the  Coal  Measures. 

We  pursue  our  history  no  further.  Its  after  course  is  com- 
paratively well  known.  The  huge  sauroid  fish  was  succeed- 
ed by  the  equally  huge  reptile  —  the  reptile  by  the  bird  — 
the  bird  by  the  marsupial  quadruped  ;  and  at  length,  after 
races  higher  in  the  scale  of  instinct  had  taken  precedence  in 
succession,  the  one  of  the  other,  the  sagacious  elephant  ap- 
peared, as  the  lord  of  that  latest  creation  which  immediately 
preceded  our  own.  How  natural  does  the  thought  seem 
which  suggested  itself  to  the  profound  mind  of  Cuvier,  when 
indulging  in  a  similar  review  !    Has  the  last  scene  in  the 


THE   OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


259 


series  arisen,  or  has  Deity  expended  his  infinitude  of  resource, 
and  reached  the  ultimate  stage  of  progression  at  which  per- 
fection can  arrive  ?  The  philosopher  hesitated,  and  then  de- 
cided in  the  negative,  for  he  was  too  intimately  acquainted 
with  the  works  of  the  Omnipotent  Creator  to  think  of  limit- 
ing his  power;  and  he  could,  therefore,  anticipate  a  coming 
period  in  which  man  would  have  to  resign  his  post  of  honor 
to  some  nobler  and  wiser  creature  —  the  monarch  of  a  better 
and  happier  world.  How  well  it  is,  to  be  permitted  to  indulge 
in  the  expansion  of  Cuvier's  thought,  without  sharing  in  the 
melancholy  of  Cuvier's  feeling  —  to  be  enabled  to  look  for- 
ward to  the  coming  of  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth,  not  in 
terror,  but  in  hope  —  to  be  encouraged  to  believe  in  the  sys- 
tem of  unending  progression,  but  to  entertain  no  fear  of  the 
degradation  or  deposition  of  man  !  The  adorable  Monarch 
of  the  future,  with  all  its  unsummed  perfection,  has  already 
passed  into  the  heavens,  flesh  of  our  flesh,  and  bone  of  our 
bone,  and  Enoch  and  Elias  are  there  with  him  —  fit  repre- 
sentatives of  that  dominant  race,  which  no  other  race  shall 
ever  supplant  or  succeed,  and  to  whose  onward  and  upward 
march  the  deep  echoes  of  eternity  shall  never  cease  to 
respond. 


ICHTHYOLITES  OF  THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


FROM 

AGASSIZ'S    "POISSONS  FOSSILES." 


The  synonymes  here  —  now  supplanted,  however  —  with  the 
names  of  a  few  doubtful  or  fictitious  species,  are  given  in  Italics ;  — 
the  former  opposite  the  names  ultimately  adopted,  the  latter  immedi- 
ately under  the  names  of  the  determined  species. 


Acanthodes  pusillus. 
Actinolepis  tuberculatus. 

Asterolepis  Asmusii.  —  Syn.  ChelonicJithys  Asmasii, 
"  apicalis. 
"  granulata. 
"  Hceninghausii. 
"  Malcolmsoni. 

1         minor.  —  Syn.  ChelonichtJiys  minor* 

"  ornata. 

"  speciosa. 

"  concatenatus. 

u  depressiis. 
Bothriolepis  favosa.  —  Syn.  Ghjptosteus  favosits. 

"  ornata        "  "  reticulatus 

Byssacanthus  arcuatus. 

"  crenulatus. 

"  locvis. 
Cephalaspis  Lewisii. 

"  Lloydii. 

"  LyeUii. 

*'  rostratus. 


262 


ICHTHYOLITES  OF  THE 


Cheir  acanthus  microlepidotus. 

"  minor. 

"  Murchisoni. 
Cheirolepis  Cummingise. 

"  Traillii. 

"  Uragus. 

"  splendens. 

w         unilateralis . 
Chelyophorus  pustulatns. 

M  Yerneuilii. 
Cladodus  simplex. 
Climatius  reticulatus. 
Coccosteus  cuspidatus. 

"         decipiens.  —  Syn.  latus. 

"  maximus. 

"  oblongus. 
Cosmacanthus  Malcolmsoni. 
Cricodus  incurvus.  —  Syn.  Dendrodus  incurvus* 
Ctenacanthus  ornatus. 

"  serrulatus. 
Ctenodus  Keyserlingii. 

'*       margin  alis. 

"  parvulus. 

"  Worthii. 

"  radiatus. 

"  serratus. 
Ctenoptychius  priscus. 
Dendrodus  latus. 

"  minor. 

"  sigmoides. 

"  strigatus. 

"  tenuistriatus. 
Diplacarithus  crassispinus. 

"  longispinus. 

"  striatulus. 

"  striatus. 
Diplopterus  affinis. 


OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 


263 


Diploptems  borealis.  —  Syn.  Agassizii. 

"  macrocephalus. 
Dipterus  macrolepidotus. 

"  arenaceas. 

"  brachypygopierus. 

u  macropygopterus. 

"  Valenciennesii. 
Glyptolepis  elegans. 

(i  leptopterus. 

"  microlepidotus. 
Glyptopomus  minor.  —  Syn.  Platygnathus  minor. 
Haplacanthus  marginalis. 
Holoptychius  Andersoni. 

t 

"  Fleniingii. 

"  giganteus. 

"  Murchisoni. 

"  nobilissimus. 

"  Omaliusii. 
Homacanthus  arcuatus. 
Hemothorax  Flemingii. 

Lamnodus  biporcatus.  —  Syn.  Dendrodus  biporcatus. 

"        hastatus.  — Syn.  Panderi.    Dendrodus  hastatus,  compressus. 

"  sulcatus. 
Narcodes  pustilifer. 
N  aulas  sulcatus. 

Odontacanthus  crenatus.  —  Syn.  Ctenoptychius  crenatus. 

"  heterodon. 
Onchus  heterogyrus. 

"  semistriatus. 

"  sublsevis. 
Osteolepis  arenatus. 

"  macrolepidotus 

"  major. 

"  microlepidotus. 

"  intermedins. 

"  nanus. 
Pamphr actus  Andersoni. 


288  ICHTHYOLITES  OF  THE  OLD  RED  SANDSTONE. 

Pamphr actus  hydrophilus.  —  Syn.  Pierichthys  hydrophihis, 
Parexus  rccurvus. 
Phyllolepis  concentricus. 
Placothorax  paradoxus. 
Platygnathus  JamesonL 
"  paucidens. 
Polyphractus  platycephalus. 

•  Psammosteus  arenatus.  —  Syn.  Placosteus  arenatus. 

"  mseandrinus.  "  "  mceandrinus. 

«'  paradoxus.     "    Psammolepis  paradoxus. 

"  undulatus.      "    Placosteus  undulatus. 

Pterichthys  arenatus. 

"  cancriformis. 

11  cornutus. 

"  major. 

"  Milleri. 

"  latus. 

"  oblongus. 

u  productus. 

"  testudinarius. 
Ptychacanthus  dubius. 
Stagonolepis  Robertsoni. 


THE  END. 


ANNUAL  OP  SCIENTIFIC  DISCOVERY. 


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FOOTPRINTS  OF  THE  CREATOR; 

 OR  

THE  ASTEROLEPIS  OF  STROMNESS. 

BY  HUGH  MILLEE. 

WITH    MANY  ILLUSTRATIONS. 
PEOM   THE   THIRD   LONDON  E  D I T I  O  N. — W I T  H   A   MEMOIR    OF   THE  AUTHOB 

BY  LOUIS  AGASSIZ. 

"  In  its  purely  geological  character,  the  Toot-prints'  is  not  surpassed  hy  any  modern 
work  of  the  same  olass.  In  this  volume,  Mr.  Miller  discusses  the  development  hypothesis, 
or  the  hypothesis  of  natural  law,  as  maintained  by  Lamarck,  and  by  the  author  of  the 
4  Vestiges  of  Creation,'  and  has  subjected  it,  in  its  geological  aspect,  to  the  most  rigorous 
examination.  He  has  stripped  even  of  its  semblance  of  truth,  and  restored  to  the  Creator, 
as  governor  cf  the  universe,  that  power  and  those  functions  which  he  was  supposed  to  have 
resigned  at  its  birth.  *  *  *  The  earth  has  still  to  surrender  mighty  secrets,  — and  great  rev- 
elations are  yet  to  issue  from  sepulchres  of  stone.  It  is  from  the  vaults  to  which  ancient 
life  has  been  consigned  that  the  history  of  the  dawn  of  life  is  to  be  composed.  "—North 
British  Review. 

"  Scientific  knowledge  equally  remarkable  for  comprehensiveness  and  accuracy;  a  style 
at  all  times  singularly  clear,  vivid,  and  powerful,  ranging  at  will,  and  without  effort,  from 
the  most  natural  and  graceful  simplicity,  through  the  playful,  the  graphic,  and  the  vigor- 
ous, to  the  impressive  eloquence  of  great  thoughts  greatly  expressed;  reasoning  at  once 
comprehensive  in  scope,  strong  in  grasp,  and  pointedly  direct  in  application, —  these  qual- 
ities combine  to  render  the  1  Foot-prints  '  one  of  the  most  perfect  refutations  of  error,  and 
defences  of  truth,  that  ever  exact  science  has  produced."— Free  Church  Magazine. 

Dr.  Buckland,  at  a  meeting  of  the  British  Association,  said  he  had  never  been  so  much 
as  tonished  in  his  life,  by  the  powers  of  any  man,  as  he  had  been  by  the  geological  descriptions 
of  Mr.  Miller.  That  wonderful  man  described  these  objects  with  a  facility  which  made  him 
ashamed  of  the  comparative  meagreness  and  poverty  of  his  own  descriptions  in  the  "  Bridge- 
water  Treatise,"  which  had  cost  him  hours  and  days  of  labor.  He  would  give  his  left  hand 
to  possess  such  powers  of  description  as  this  man;  and  if  it  pleased  Providence  to  spare  his 
useful  life,  he,  if  any  one,  would  certainly  render  science  attractive  and  popular,  and  do 
equal  service  to  theology  and  geology. 

"  The  style  of  this  work  is  most  singularly  clear  and  vivid,  rising  at  times  to  eloquence, 
and  always  impressing  the  reader  with  the  idea  that  he  is  brought  in  contact  with  great 
thoughts.  Where  it  is  necessary,  there  are  engravings  to  illustrate  the  geological  remains. 
The  whole  work  forms  one  of  the  best  defences  of  Truth  that  science  can  produce."— Albany 
State  Register. 

"The  '  Foot-Prints  of  the  Creator'  is  not  only  a  good  but  a  great  book.  All  who  have 
read  the  'Vestiges  of  Creation'  should  study  the  '  Foot-Prints  of  the  Creator.'  This  vol- 
ume is  especially  worthy  the  attention  of  those  who  are  so  fearful  of  the  skeptical  tenden- 
cies of  natural  science.  We  expect  this  volume  will  meet  with  a  very  extensive  sale.  It 
should  be  placed  in  every  Sabbath  School  Library,  and  at  every  Christian  fireside. " — Boston 
Traveller. 

"Mr.  Miller's  style  is  remarkably  pleasing;  his  mode  of  popularising  geological  knowl- 
edge unsurpassed,  perhaps  unequalled;  and  the  deep  vein  of  reverence  for  Divine  Kevela- 
tion  pervading  all,  adds  interest  and  value  to  the  volume."— New  York  Com.  Advertiser. 

"  The  publishers  have  again  covered  themselves  with  honor,  by  giving  to  the  American 
public,  with  the  Author's  permission,  an  elegant  reprint  of  a  foreign  work  of  science. 
We  earnestly  bespeak  for  this  work  a  wide  and  free  circulation,  among  all  who  love  science 
much  and  religion  more." — Puritan  Recorder. 

"  The  book  indicates  a  mind  of  rare  gifts  and  attainments,  and  exhibits  the  workings  of 
poetic  genius  in  admirable  harmony  with  the  generalizations  of  philosophy.  It  is,  withal 
pervaded  by  a  spirit  of  devout  reverence  and  child-like  humility,  such  as  all  men  delight  to 
behold  in  the  interpreter  of  nature.  We  are  persuaded  that  no  intelligent  render  will  go 
through  the  chapters  of  the  author  without  being  instructed  and  delighted  with  the  views 
they  contain." — Providence  Journal. 

"  Hugh  Miller  is  a  Scotch  geologist,  who,  within  a  few  years,  has  not  Only  added  largely 
to  the  facts  of  science,  but  has  stepped  at  once  among  the  leading  scientific  writers  of  the 
age,  by  his  wonderfully  clear,  accurate,  and  elegant  geological  works.  Mr.  Miller,  taking 
the  newly-discovered  Asterolepis  for  his  text,  has  produced  an  answer  to  the  '  Vestiges  of 
Creation,'  a  work  which  has  been  more  widely  circulated,  perhaps,  than  anv  other  profes- 
sedly scientific  book  ever  printed.  Mr.  Miller  (and  there  is  no  doubt  of  this)  completely 
upsets  his  opponent  — exposing  his  incompetency,  ignorance,  and  sophistry,  with  a  clear- 
ness, ease,  and  elegance  that  are  both  astonishing  and  delightful.  Throughout  the  entire 
geologic  portion,  the  reasoning  is  markedly  close,  shrewd, "and  intelligible —  the  facts  arc 
evidently  at  the  finger's  end  of  the  author  — and  the  most  unwilling,  cautious,  and  antago- 
nistic reader  is  compelled  to  yield  his  thorough  assent  to  the  argument. "—  Boston  Post. 
GOULD  AND  LINCOLN,  PUBLISHERS,  BOSTON. 


FOOT-PRINTS  OF  THE  CREATOR. 


NOTICES   OF  THE  PRESS. 

"  This  is  a  very  rich  and  valuable  book.  It  is  rich  in  the  treasures  of  scientific  knowledge, 
which  are  interwoven  in  an  argument,  remarkably  clear,  in  a  style  graceful,  vigorous, 
graphic,  and  of  great  power  — rendering  it  a  most  perfect  refutation  of  the  atheistical  error 
propagated  in  the  work  entitled,  the  '  Vestiges  of  Creation.'  "—Philad.  Christian  Observer. 

'•Around  the  name  of  Hugh  Miller  already  gathers  the  halo  of  a  most  pure  and  grateful 
fame.  Receiving  his  geological  education  among  the  rocks  of  the  quarry,  where  he  labored 
for  fifteen  >  ears ;  writing  in  a  style  of  peculiar  simplicity  and  elegance,  and  devoting  the 
exact  knowledge  derived  from  walking  in  the  Creator's  'foot-prints'  to  the  cause  of  true 
religion,  the  proudest  devotees  of  science  have  taken  pleasure  in  doing  him  honor,  have 
delighted  to  listen  to  his  teachings,  and  rejoiced  to  aid  in  their  promulgation." — Springfield 
Republican. 

"  This  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  and  deeply  profound  works  of  the  present  age.  The 
author's  name  will  not  be  soon  forgotten,  in  the  scientific  world,— and  his  productions  will 
not  fail  to  be  read  and  admired,  wherever  true  science  is  promulgated.  He  is  most  remark- 
ably clear,  concise,  and  powerful,  in  his  arguments ;  profound  in  his  researches,  and  conclu- 
sive in  his  reasoning. " — New  York  Farmer  and  Mechanic. 

"There  is  poetry  and  philosophy  combined  in  this  work.  The  author  had  a  mind  which 
revelled,  so  to  speak,  in  the  beauties  and  wonders  of  science.  From  a  child,  almost,  he 
delighted  in  the  works  of  nature.  .  .  .  lie  has  gone  from  one  step  to  another,  till  now  he  is 
justly  esteemed  as  among  the  great  Geologists  of  the  world.  It  is  a  book  in  which  the  man 
of  science  will  delight,  but  it  is  also  one  which  the  general  reader  will  peruse  with  instruct- 
ion and  satisfaction. "— Baltimore  Patriot. 

"The  publishers  are  entitled  to  the  thanks,  not  only  of  scientific  men  but  of  christians,  in 
this  country,  for  presenting  this  work  to  the  American  public."—  Christian  Secretary. 

"A  remarkable  work  by  a  remarkable  man.  Mr.  Miller  is  self-made,  and  has  elevated 
himself,  by  the  force  of  his  genius,  from  the  position  of  an  ordinary  laborer  in  a  stone 
quarry,  to  that  of  one  of  the  first  Geologists  of  the  age.  For  careful  investigation,  accuracy, 
fullness,  and  beauty  of  description,  combined  with  a  proper  estimate  of  the  true  claims  of 
science,  and  a  high  reverence  for  sacred  things,  he  is  not  surpassed  by  any  writer  on  natural 
science  at  the  present  day.  All  who  have  taken  any  interest  in  the  discussion  of  geological 
topics,  and  'particularly  their  connection  with  the  Sacred  Writings,  will  read  this  volume 
with  admiration  and  advantage.  Its  subject,  spirit,  style,  and  manner  of  publication,  all 
commend  it;  and  it  is  destined  to  an  extensive  circulation.  It  is  one  of  the  noblest  and 
most  admirable  contributions  lately  made  to  Science  and  Christianity."—  Christian  Herald. 

"  Within  a  feAv  days,  this  enterprising  house  has  republished  one  of  the  most  charming 
scientific  works  of  'modern  times  — a  work  which,  from  the  simple  love  of  truth  which  per- 
vades it,  its  clearness,  authenticity,  and  wonderful  revelations,  may  be  called  a  work  of 
genius,  as  appropriately  as  a  fine  poem.  It  is  entitled  '  Foot-Prints  of  the  Creator.'— 
Willis'  Rome  Journal. 

"A  work  so  beautifully  written,  filled  with  such  curious,  new,  and  interesting  facts,  and 
breathing  in  every  page  the  purest  philosophy  and  Christianity,  could  scarcely  meet  with 
adequate  praise,  in  a  limited  space.  It  should  be  added  to  the  library  of  every  one."— 
Washington  Union. 

"  We  have  never  read  a  work  of  the  kind  with  so  much  interest.  Its  statements  of  fact 
and  its  descriptions  are  remarkably  clear.  From  minute  particulars  it  leads  us  on  to  broad 
views  of  the  creation;  and  the  earth  becomes  the  witness  of  a  succession  of  miracles,  as 
wonderful  as  any  recorded  in  the  Scriptures." — Christian  Register. 

"  This  splendid  work  should  be  read  by  every  man  in  our  land.  We  recommend  the  study 
of  this  science  to  our  3'oung  men;  let  them  approach  it  with  open,  and  not  unfaithful 
breasts,  — for  amid  our  mountains,  grand  and  tali,  our  boundless  plains,  and  flowing  rivers, 
vast  and  virgin  fields  for  exploration  yet  present  themselves."— Scientific  American. 

"This  is  one  of  the  most  able  and  learned  works  which  has  ever  been  issued  from  the 
American  press.  The  North  British  Review  says  1  That  in  its  geological  character  it  is  not 
surpassed  bv  anv  modern  work  of  the  same  class.'  The  style  of  the  work  is  clear,  rich,  and 
strong;  its  statements  of  truth  are  plain  and  accurate,  and  its  arguments  are  presented 
with  masterly  force.  Its  author,  Hugh  Miller,  is  a  man  of  very  superior  talents  and  attain- 
ments."— New  York  Christian  Messenger. 

"  The  author  resembles  Burns,  in  the  freshness,  and  vigor,  and  enthusiasm  of  genius;  and 
had  he  ventured  into  the  realm  of  poetry,  the  greatest  of  Scottish  bards  might  have  wel- 
comed his  company.  We  hope  the  volume  mav  be  widely  circulated,  especially  among 
intelligent  Christians.  .  .  .  This  work  is  written  in  a  bold  and  eloquent  style,  and  though 
penetrating  to  the  inner  shrine  of  the  Geological  temple,  and  necessarily  dealing  with  hard 
words  and  harder  things,  it  will  secure  many  readers."—  Christian  Chronicle. 

GOULD  AND  LINCOLN,  PUBLISHERS,  BOSTON. 


THE  OLD  RED 


SANDSTONE; 


OK 


NEW  WALKS  IN 


AN  OLD  FIELD. 


BY  HUGH 


MILLER. 


FROM  THE  FOURTH  LONDON  EDITION  —  ILLU8TRAT  t> 


A  writer,  in  noticing  Mr.  Miller's  u  First  Impressions  of  England  and  the  People,"  in 
the  New  Englander,  of  May,  1850,  commences  by  saying,  "We  presume  it  is  not  neces- 
sary formally  to  introduce  Hugh  Miller  to  our  readers ;  the  author  of  '  The  Old  Red  Sand- 
stone '  placed  himself,  hy  that  production,  which  was  first,  among  the  most  successful 
geologists,  and  the  best  writers  of  the  age.  "We  well  remember  with  what  mingled  emotion 
and  delight  we  first  read  that  work.  Rarely  has  a  more  remarkable  book  come  from  the 
press.  .  .  .  For,  besides  the  important  contributions  which  it  makes  to  the  science  of  Geol- 
ogy, it  is  written  in  a  style  which  places  the  author  at  once  among  the  most  accomplished 
writers  of  the  age.  ...  He  proves  himself  to  be  in  prose  what  Burns  has  been  in  poetry. 
"We  are  not  extravagant  in  saying  that  there  is  no  geologist  living  who,  in  the  descriptions 
of  the  phenomena  of  the  science,  has  united  such  accuracy  of  statement  with  so  much 
poetic  beauty  of  expression.  "What  Dr.  Ruckland  said  was  not  a  mere  compliment,  that 
*  he  had  never  been  so  much  astonished  in  his  life,  by  the  powers  of  any  man,  as  he  had 
been  by  the  geological  descriptions  of  Mr.  Miller.  That  wonderful  man  described  these 
objects  with  a  felicity  which  made  him  ashamed  of  the  comparative  meagreness  and  pov- 
erty of  his  own  descriptions,  in  the  Bridgewater  Treatise,  which  had  cost  him  hours  and 
days  of  labor.'  FOr  our  own  part  we  do  not  hesitate  to  place  Mr.  Miller  in  the  front  rank 
of  English  prose  writers.  "Without  mannerism,  without  those  extravagances  which  give  a 
factitious  reputation  to  so  many  writers  of  the  day,  his  style  has  a  classic  purity  and  ele- 
gance, which  remind  one  of  Goldsmith  and  Irving,  while  there  is  an  ease  and  a  naturalness 
in  the  illustrations  of  the  imagination,  which  belong  only  to  men  of  true  genius." 

"  The  excellent  and  lively  work  of  our  meritorious,  self-taught  counti  yman,  Mr.  Miller, 
is  as  admirable  for  the  clearness  of  its  descriptions,  and  the  sweetness  of  its  composition, 
as  for  the  purity  and  gracefulness  which  pervade  it. '  '—Edinburgh  Review. 

"  A  geological  work,  small  in  size,  unpretending  in  spirit  and  manner;  it3  contents,  the 
conscientious  narration  of  fact;  its  style,  the  beautiful  simplicity  of  truth;  and  altogether 
possessing,  for  a  rational  reader,  an  interest  superior  to  that  of  a  novel."— Dr.  J.  Pye  Smith. 

"  This  admirable  work  evinces  talent  of  the  highest  order,  a  deep  and  healthful  mora* 
feeling,  a  perfect  command  of  the  finest  language,  and  a  beautiful  union  of  philosophy  and 
poetry.  No  geologist  can  peruse  this  volume  without  instruction  and  delight.  "Silli- 
man's  American  Journal  of  Science. 

"Mr.  Miller's  exceedingly  interesting  book  on  this  formation  is  just  the  sort  of  work  to 
render  any  subject  popular.  It  is  written  in  a  remarkably  pleasing  style,  and  contains  a 
wonderful  amount  of  information."—  Westminster  Review. 

"  In  Mr.  Miller's  charming  little  work  will  be  found  a  very  graphic  description  of  the  Old 
Redfishes.  I  know  not  of  a  more  fascinating  volume  on  any  branch  of  British  geology."— 
MantelVs  Medals  of  Creation. 

Sir  Roderick  Murchison,  giving  an  account  of  the  investigations  of  Mr.  Miller,  spoke 
in  the  highest  terms  of  his  perseverance  and  ingenuity  as  a  geologist.  With  no  other  advan 
tages  than  a  common  education,  by  a  careful  use  of  his  means,  he  had  been  able  to  give 
himself  an  excellent  education,  and  to  elevate  himself  to  a  position  which  any  man,  in  any 
sphere  of  life,  might  well  envy.  He  had  seen  some  of  his  papers  on  geology,  written  in  a 
style  so  beautiful  and  poetical  as  to  throw  plain  geologists,  like  himself,  in  the  shade. 


GOULD  AND  LINCOLN,  PUBLISHERS,  BOSTON. 


THE  POETRY  OF  SCIENCE; 


OR,  STUDIES  OF  THE  PHYSICAL  PHENOMENA  OF  NATURE 


BY  ROBERT  HUNT, 

AUTHOR  OF  "PANTHEA,"  "RESEARCHES  ON  LIGHT,"  ETC. 


NOTICES  OF  THE  PRESS. 

u  We  know  of  no  work  upon  science  which  is  so  well  calculated  to  lift  the  mind  from  the 
admiration  0f  the  wondrous  works  of  creation  to  the  belief  in,  and  worship  of,  a  First  Great 
Cause.  *  *  *  One  of  the  most  readable  epitomes  of  the  present  state  and  progress  of 
science  we  have  perused."— Morning  Herald,  London. 

"  The  design  of  Mr.  Hunt's  volume  is  striking  and  good.  The  subject  is  very  well  dealt 
with,  and  the  object  very  well  attained;  it  displays  a  fund  of  knowledge,  and  is  the  work 
of  an  eloquent  and  earnest  man." — The  Examiner,  London. 

"  This  book  richly  deserves  the  attention  of  the  public.  Its  object,  as  may  be  surmised 
from  the  title,  is  to  paint  the  poetical  aspect  of  science,  or  rather  to  show  that  the  deeper 
one  investigates  the  mysteries  of  nature  —  whether  in  the  formation  of  a  continent,  in  the 
orbit  of  a  star,  or  in  the  color  of  a  flower  — the  more  awakened  will  be  his  wonder  and  his 
veneration,  and  the  more  call  will  there  be  upon  his  highest  powers  of  the  intellect  and  tho 
imagination." — Boston  Post. 

"  It  was  once  supposed  that  poetry  and  science  were  natural  antipodes ;  and  lo  !  they  now 
are  united  in  loving  bonds.  Mr.  Hunt  has  certainly  demonstrated  that  the  divinest  poetry 
lies  hidden  in  the  depths  of  science,  and  needs  but  a  master  spirit  to  evoke  it  in  shapes  of 
beauty. "—  Christian  Chronicle. 

"  It  may  be  read  with  interest,  by  the  lovers  of  nature  and  of  science."  —N.  Y.  Tribune. 

"  It  is  written  in  a  style  not  unworthy  of  the  grandeur  of  the  subject."  —N.  Y.  Eve.  Post. 

"The  author,  while  adhering  to  true  science,  has  set  forth  its  truths  in  an  exceedingly 
captivating  style."—  Mew  York  Commercial  Advertiser. 

"  We  are  heartily  glad  to  see  this  interesting  work  re-published  in  America.  It  is  a  book 
that  is  a  book."  —  Scientific  American. 

"  From  the  arcana  of  science  especially,  has  the  author  gleaned  what  may  be  properly 
termed  her  poetry,  which  will  make  the  book  one  of  the  most  interesting  character  to  the 
intelligent  reader." — Christian  Herald. 

"  It  is  really  a  scientific  treatise,  fitted  to  instruct  and  enlarge  the  mind  of  the  reader,  but 
at  the  same  time  it  invests  the  subjects  it  describes  with  the  radiance  of  the  imagination, 
and  with  the  charming  association  of  poetry.  The  book  well  deserves  the  title  it  bears,  and 
is  a  beautiful  illustration  of  the'poetic  interest  that  belongs  to  many  of  the  discussions  of 
the  science."  —  Providence  Journal. 

"It  is  one  of  the  most  readable,  interesting,  and  instructive  works  of  the  kind,  that  we 
have  ever  seen."  —  Philadelphia  Christian  Observer. 

14  In  this  admirable  production,  Mr.  Hunt  offers  a  beautiful  epitome  of  the  physical  phe- 
nomena of  Nature,  in  which,  from  their  ultimate  facts,  he  leads  his  reader  by  inductive 
processes,  to  the  contemplation  of  vast  eternal  truths.  Though  full  of  information,  the 
facts  cited  in  his  pages  are  not  collected  solely  because  they  are  such,  but  with  true  philo- 
sophical acumen,  to^build  up  the  edifice ;  and  if  curious  or  rare,  they  are  selected  merely  to 
(Strengthen  the  position  in  which  they  are  placed."—  Washington  Union. 

"  We  anticipate  a  wide  circulation  for  it  in  this  country."  —Albany  State  Register. 

"  The  scientific  compass  of  the  volume  is  large,  and  its  execution  is  exceedingly  fine  and 
interesting."  —  Zion's  Herald. 

"  We  noticed  this  eloquent  work,  while  it  was  in  the  course  of  publication.  It  is  now  out 
in  beautiful  stvle,  and  makes  with  the  notes,  which  are  full  and  as  valuable  as  the  text,  a 
volume  of  nearlv  four  hundred  pases.  The  publishers  could  not  have  done  the  poets  of  the 
land  a  better  service,  than  by  thus  supplying  them  with  exhaustless  materials,  collected 
from  all  branches  of  science,  and  admirably  arranged  for  their  more  substantial  structure." 
—^Watchman  and  Reflector. 

uHere  we  have  an  illustration  of  the  true  and  beautiful,  and  how  that  they  are  always 
one.  The  mysterious  laws  of  nature,  and  the  phenomena  by  which  they  are  manifested, 
are  brought  before  the  reader  in  a  way  that  enchants  and  improves.  There  is  poetry  in 
science,  as  no  one  may  deny,  after  he  reads  this  book."— Baltimore  Patriot. 

GOULD  AND  LINCOLN,  PUBLISHERS,  BOSTON. 


THE  E  A  11 T  II  A  N  1)  M  A  N : 

Lectures  on  Comparative  Physical  Geography,  in  it?  Relation  to  the  IKstory  of  JilarJcind. 
By  Arnold  Guvot,  Pro'f.  Phy».  Geo.  &  Hist.,  Nouchatel. 
Translated  from  the  French,  by  Prof.  C.  C.  Felton. —  With  Illustrations. 
12mo.    Price  $1.25. 


4t  Those  who  have  been  accustomed  to  regard  Geography  as  a  merely  descripi 
branch  of  learning,  drier  than  the  remainder  biscuit  after  a  voyage,  will  be  delighted 
to  find  this  hitherto  unattractive  pursuit  converted  info  a  science,  the  principles  of 
which  are  definite  and  the  results  conclusive  j  a  science  that  embraces  the  investiga- 
tion of  natural  laws  and  interprets  their  mode  of  operation  ;  which  professes  to  dis- 
cover in  the  rudest  forms  and  apparently  confused  arrangement  of  the  materials  com- 
posing the  planets'  crust,  a  new  manifestation  of  the  wisdom  which  has  filled  ths 
earth  with  its  riches.  *  *  *  To  the  reader  we  shall  owe  no  apology,  if  we  have 
said  enough  to  excite  his  curiosity  and  to  persuade  him  to  look  to  the  book  itself  for 
further  instruction." — North  American  Review. 

"  The  grand  idea  of  the  work  is  happily  expressed  by  the  author,  where  he  calls  i{ 
the  geographical  march  of  history.  *  *  *  The  man  of  science  will  hail  it  as  a  beauti- 
ful generalization  from  the  facts  of  observation.  The  Christian,  who  trusts  in  a  mer 
ciful  Providence,  will  draw  courage  from  it,  and  hope  yet  more  earnestly  for  the 
redemption  of  the  most  degraded  portions  of  mankind.  Faiih,  science,  learning, 
poetry,  taste,  in  a  word,  genius,  have  liberally  contributed  to  the  production  of  the 
work  under  review.  Sometimes  we  feel  as  if  we  were  studying  a  treatise  on  the 
exact  sciences  ;  at  others,  it  strikes  the  ear  like  an  epic  poem.  Now  it  reads  like 
history,  and  now  it  sounds  like  prophecy.  It  will  find  readers  in  whatever  language 
it  may  be  published  ;  and  in  the  elegant  English  dress  which  it  has  received  from  the 
accomplished  pen  of  the  translator,  it  will  not  fail  to  interest,  instruct  and  inspire. 

We  congratulate  the  lovers  of  history  and  of  physical  geography,  as  well  as  all 
those  who  are  interested  in  the  growth  and  expansion  of  our  common  education,  that 
Prof.  Guyot  contemplates  the  publication  of  a  series  of  elementary  works  on  Physical 
Geography,  in  which  these  two  great  branches  of  study  which  God  has  so  closely 
joined  together,  will  not,  we  trust,  be  put  asunder." — Christian  Examiner. 

"  A  copy  of  this  volume  reached  us  at  too  late  an  hour  for  an  extended  notice.  The 
work  is  one  of  high  merit,  exhibiting  a  wide  range  of  knowledge,  great  research,  and 
a  philosophical  spirit  of  investigation.  Its  perusal  will  well  repay  the  most  learned 
in  such  subjects,  and  give  new  views  to  all,  of  man's  relation  to  the  globe  he  inhabits." 
Silliman's  Journal,  July,  1849. 

"  These  lectures  form  one  of  the  most  valuable  contributions  to  geographical  science 
that  has  ever  been  published  in  this  country.  They  invest  the  study  of  geography 
with  an  interest  which  will,  we  doubt  not,  surprise  and  delight  many.  They  will 
open  an  entire  new  world  to  most  readers,  and  will  be  found  an  invaluable  aid  to  the 
teacher  and  student  of  geography." — Evening  Traveller. 

«  We  venture  to  pronounce  this  one  of  the  most  interesting  and  instructive  books 
which  have  come  from  the  American  press  for  many  a  month.  The  science  of  which 
it  treats  is  comparatively'of  recent  origin,  but  it  is  of  great  importance,  not  only  on 
Recount  of  its  connections  with  other  branches  of  knowledge,  but  for  its  bearing  upon 
many  of  the  interests  of  society.  In  these  lectures  it  is  relieved  of  statistical  details, 
and  presented  only  in  its  grandest  features.  It  thus  not  only  places  before  us  most 
instructive  facts  relating  to  the  condition  of  the  earth,  but  also  awakens  within  us  a 
stronger  sympathy  with  the  beings  that  inhabit  it,  and  a  profounder  reverence  for  the 
beneficent  Creator  who  formed  it,  and  of  whose  character  it  is  a  manifestation  and 
expression.  They  abound  with  the  richest  interest  and  instruction  to  every  intelli- 
gerr:  reader,  and  especially  fitted  to  awaken  enthusiasm  and  delight  in  all  who  aro 
devoted  .c  the  study  either  of  natural  science  or  the  history  of  mankind." — Providence 
Journal. 

"  Geography  is  here  presented  under  a  new  and  attractive  phase  ;  it  is  no  longer  v 
dry  description  of  the  features  of  the  earth's  surface.  The  influence  of  soil  scenery 
and  climate  upon  character,  has  not  yet  received  the  consideration  due  to  it  from  his- 
torians and  philosophers.  In  the  volume  before  us  the  profound  investigations  of  Hum- 
boldt, Ritter  and  others,  in  Physical  Geography,  arc  presented  in  a  popular  form,  and 
with  the  clearness  and  vivacity  so  characteristic  of  French  treatises  on  science.  The 
work  should  be  introduced  into  our  higher  schools." — The  Independent,  Ncio  York. 

u  Geography  is  hero  made  to  assutno  a  dignity,  not  heretofore  attached  to  it.  The 
knowledge  communicated  ia  these  Lectures  is  curious,  unexpected,  absorbing. "-- 
Christian  Mi?'rcr,  Portland. 


CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  THEOLOGICAL  SCIENCE. 
BY  JOHN  HARRIS,  D .  D . 


I.  THE  PRE- AD  AMITE  EARTH. 

NOTICES  OF  THE  PRESS. 
{t  As  we  have  examined  every  page  of  this  work,  and  put  forth  our  best  efforts  to  un- 
derstand the  full  import  of  its  varied  and  rich  details,  the  resistless  impression  has  come 
over  our  spirits,  that  the  respected  author  has  been  assisted  from  on  high  in  his  labo- 
rious, but  successful  undertaking.  May  it  please  God  yet  to  aid  and  uphold  him,  to 
complete  his  whole  design  ;  for  we  can  now  see,  if  we  mistake  not,  that  there  is  great 
unity  as  well  as  originality  and  beauty  in  the  object  which  he  is  aiming  to  accomplish. 
If  we  do  not  greatly  mistake,  this  long  looked  for  volume,  will  create  and  sustain  a 
deep  impression  in  the  more  intellectual  circles  of  the  religious  world." — London  Evan- 
gelical Magazine. 

"  The  man  who  finds  his  element  among  great  thoughts,  and  is  not  afraid  to  push 
into  the  remoter  regions  of  abstract  truth,  be  he  philosopher  or  theologian,  or  both, 
will  read  it  over  and  over,  and  will  find  his  intellect  quickened,  as  if  from  being  in  con- 
tact with  a  new  and  glorious  creation." — Albany  Argus. 

"  Dr.  Harris  states  in  a  lucid,  succinct,  and  often  highly  eloquent  manner,  all  the 
leading  facts  of  geology,  and  their  beautiful  harmony  with  the  teachings  of  Scrip- 
ture. As  a  work  of  paleontology  in  its  relation  to  Scripture,  it  will  be  one  of  the  most 
complete  and  popular  extant.  It  evinces  great  research,  clear  and  rigid  reasoning,  and 
a  style  more  condensed  and  beautiful  than  is  usually  found  in  a  work  so  profound. 
It  will  he  an  invaluable  contribution  to  Biblical  Science." — New  York  Evangelist. 

"  He  is  a  sound  logician  and  lucid  reasoner,  getting  nearer  to  the  groundwork  of  a 
subject  generally  supposed  to  have  very  uncertain  data,  than  any  other  writer  within 
our  knowledge." — New  York  Com.  Advertiser. 

"  The  elements  of  things,  the  laws  of  organic  nature,  and  those  especially  that  lie  at 
the  foundation  of  the  divine  relations  to  man,  are  here  dwelt  upon  in  a  masterly  man- 
ner."—  Christian  Reflector,  Boston. 

II.  MAN  PRIMEVAL; 

OR  THE  CONSTITUTION  AND  PRIMITIVE  CONDITION  OF  THE  HUMAN  BEING. 

WITH  A  FINE  PORTRAIT  OF  THE  AUTHOR. 
NOTICES    OF    THE  PRESS. 

"It  surpasses  in  interest  its  predecessor.  It  is  an  able  attempt  to  carry  out  the 
author's  grand  conception.  His  purpose  is  to  unfold,  as  far  as  possible,  the  successive 
steps  by  which  God  is  accomplishing  his  purpose  to  manifest  His  All-sufficiency.  *  *  * 
The  reader  is  led  along-  a  pathway,  abounding  with  rich  and  valuable  thought,  going 
on  from  the  author's  opening  propositions  to  their  complete  demonstration.  To  stu- 
dents of  mental  and  moral  science,  it  will  be  a  valuable  contribution,  and  will  assuredly 
secure  their  attention." — Christian  Chronicle,  Philadelphia. 

"  It  is  eminently  philosophical,  and  at  the  same  time  glowing  and  eloquent.  It  can- 
not fail  to  have  a  wide  circle  of  readers,  or  to  repay  richly  the  hours  which  are  given 
to  its  pages." — New  York  Recorder. 

"  The  reputation  of  the  author  of  this  volume  is  co-extensive  with  the  English  lan- 
guage. The  work  before  us  manifests  much  learning  and  metaphysical  acumen.  Its 
great  recommendation  is,  its  power  to  cause  the  reader  to  think  and  reflect." — Boston 
Recorder. 

"  Reverently  recognizing  the  Bible  as  the  fountain  and  exponent  of  truth,  he  is  as  in- 
dependent and  fearless  as  he  is  original  and  forcible ;  and  he  adds  to  these  qualities 
consummate  skill  in  argument  and  elegance  of  diction." — N.  Y.  Com.  Advertiser. 

u  His  copious  and  beautiful  illustrations  of  the  successive  laws  of  the  Divine  Mani- 
festation, have  yielded  us  inexpressible  delight." — London  Eclectic  Review. 

"  The  distribution  and  arrangement  of  thought  in  this  volume,  are  such  as  to  afford 
ample  scope  for  the  author's  remarkable  powers  of  analysis  and  illustration.  In  look- 
ing with  a  keen  and  searching  eye  at  the  principles  which  regulate  the  conduct  of  God 
towards  man,  as  the  intelligent  inhabitant  of  this  lower  world,  Dr.  Harris  has  laid  down 
lor  himself  three  distinct,  but  connected  views  of  the  Divine  procedure :  First,  The  End 
aimed  at  by  God  ;  Second,  the  Reasons  for  the  employment  of  it.  In  a  very  masterly 
way  does  our  author  grapple  with  almost  every  difficulty,  and  perplexing  subject  which 
eomes  within  the  range  of  his  proposed  inquiry  into  the  constitution  and  condition 
>f  Man  Primeval." — London  Evangelical  History. 

III.  THE  FAMILY; 

ITS  CONSTITUTION,  PROBATION  AND  HISTORY. 

rirvT  PHE^  ATI  \TIf  ■>•  ] 


CLASSICAL  STUDIES. 

ESSAYS  ON 

ANCIENT  LITERATURE  AND  ART. 

With  the  Biography  and  Correspondence  of  Eminent  Philologists. 

By  Barnas  Sears,  President  of  Newton  Theol.  Institution,  B.  B. 
Edwards,  Prof.  Andover  Theol.  Seminary,  and  C.  C.  Felton, 
Prof.  Harvard  University.     12mo.     Price  $1.25. 

SECOND  THOUSAND. 

11  Tho  collection  is  a  most  attractive  one,  and  would  be  acceptable  in  any  circum- 
stances. The  discourses,  particularly  those  of  Jacobs,  are  written  in  words  that  burn. 
A  general  could  not  exhort  his  troops  with  more  energy  and  spirit,  than  are  used 
by  the  German  Professor  in  stimulating  tho  youth  before  him  to  labor  in  the  acqui- 
sition of  classical  learning.  The  biographical  portions  of  the  book,  naturally  lesi 
exciting,  no  less  tend  to  the  same  end." — London  Lit.  Examiner,  by  John  Forster,  Esq. 

"  This  elegant  book  is  worthy  of  a  more  extended  notice  than  our  limits  at  present 
will  permit  us  to  give  it.  Great  labor  and  care  have  been  bestowed  upon  its  typo- 
graphical execution,  which  docs  honor  to  tho  American  press.  It  is  one  of  the  rare 
beauties  of  the  page,  that  not  a  word  is  divided  at  the  end  of  a  line.  The  mechanical 
part  of  the  work,  however,  is  its  least  praise.  It  is  unique  in  its  character — standing 
alone  among  the  innumerable  books  of  this  book-making  age.  The  authors  well 
deserve  the  thanks  of  the  cultivated  and  disciplined  portion  of  the  community,  for  the 
service  which,  by  this  publication,  they  have  done  to  the  cause  of  letters.  The  book 
is  of  a  high  order,  and  worthy  of  the  attentive  perusal  of  every  scholar.  It  is  a  noblo 
monument  to  the  taste,  and  judgment,  and  sound  learning  of  the  projectors,  and  will 
yield,  we  doubt  not,  a  rich  harvest  of  fame  to  themselves,  and  of  benefit  to  our 
literature.'' — Christian  Review. 

"  It  is  refreshing,  truly,  to  sit  down  with  such  a  book  as  this.  When  the  press  13 
teeming  with  the  hasty  works  of  authors  and  publishers,  it  is  a  treat  to  take  up  a  book 
that  is  an  honor,  at  once,  to  the  arts  and  the  literature  of  our  country." — New  York 
Observer. 

"  This  is  truly  an  elegant  volume,  both  in  respect  to  its  literary  and  its  mechanical 
execution.  Its  typographical  appearance  is  an  honor  to  the  American  press  ;  and  with 
equal  truth  it  may  be  said,  that  the  intrinsic  character  of  the  work  is  highly  credit- 
able to  the  age.  It  is  a  novel  work,  and  may  be  called  a  plea  for  classical  learning. 
To  scholars  it  must  be  a  treat  3  and  to  students  we  heartily  commend  it." — Boston 
Recorder. 

"  This  volume  is  no  common-place  production.  It  is  truly  refreshing,  wnen  we  are 
obliged,  from  week  to  week,  to  look  through  the  mas3  of  books  which  increases  upon 
our  table,  many  of  which  are  extremely  attenuated  in  thought  and  jejune  in  style,  to 
find  something  which  carries  us  back  to  the  pure  and  invigorating  influence  of  the 
master  minds  of  antiquity.  The  gentlemen  who  have  produced  this  volume  deserve 
the  cordial  thanks  of  the  literary  world." — New  England  Puritan. 

"  We  heartily  welcome  this  book  as  admirably  adapted  to  effect  a  most  noble  and 
much  desired  result.  We  commend  the  work  to  general  attention,  for  we  feel  sure  it 
must  do  much  to  awaken  a  zeal  for  classical  studies,  as  the  surest  means  of  attaining 
the  refinement  and  graceful  dignity  which  should  mark  the  strength  of  every  nation." — 
New  York  Tribune. 

"We  make  no  classical  pretensions,  or  we  might  say  more  about  the  principal 
articles  in  this  volume  ;  but  it  needs  no  such  pretensions  to  commend,  as  we  heartily 
do,  a  book  so  full  of  interest  and  instruction  as  the  present,  for  every  reader  who  is  at 
nil  imbued  with  a  love  of  literature." — Salem  Gazette. 

"This  book  will  do  good  in  our  colleges.  Every  student  will  want  a  copy,  anJ 
many  will  be  stimulated  by  its  perusal  to  a  more  vigorous  and  enthusiastic  pursuit  of 
that  higher  and  more  solid  learning  which  alone  deserves  to  be  called  4  classical.' 
The  recent  tendencies  have  been  to  the  neglect  of  this,  and  wo  rejoice  in  this  timely 
effort  of  minds  so  well  qualified  for  such  a  work." — Christian  Reflector. 

"  The  volume  is,  in  every  way,  a  beautiful  affair  of  its  kind,  and  we  hazard  nothing 
in  recommending  it  to  the  literary  world.'  — Christian  Secretary^  Hartford. 

"  The  design  is  a  noble  and  generous  one,  and  has  been  executed  with  a  taste  and 
good  sense,  that  do  honor  both  to  the  writers  and  the  publishers." — Prov.  Journal. 


CHAMBERS'S 

CYCLOPAEDIA  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE. 

A  SELECTION    OP     THE    CHOICEST    PRODUCTIONS    OF  ENGLISH    AUTHORS,  FROM  THB 
EARLIEST  TO  THE   PRESENT  TIME  •    CONNECTED  BY  A  CRITICAL 
AND  BIOGRAPHICAL  HISTORY. 

EDITED  BY  ROBERT  CHAMBERS. 

ASSISTED  BY  ROBERT  CARRUTHERS  AND  OTHER  EMINENT  GENTLEMEN. 

Complete  in  two  imperial  octavo  volumes,  of  more  than  fourteen 
hundred  pages  of  double  column  letterpress,  and  upwards  of 
three  hundred  elegant  illustrations. 


This  valuable  work  has  now  become  so  generally  known  and  appreciated,  that  there  need 
scarcely  be  any  thing-  said  in  commendation,  except  to  those  who  have  not  yet  seen  it. 

The  work  embraces  about  One  Thousand  Authors,  chronologically  arranged  and  classed 
as  Poets,  Historians,  Dramatists,  Philosophers,  Metaphysicians,  Divines,  etc.,  with  choice 
selections  from  their  writings,  connected  by  a  JBio graphical,  Historical,  and  Critical  Narra- 
tive ;  thus  presenting  a  complete  view  of  English  Literature,  from  the  earliest  to  the  present 
time.  Let  the  reader  open  rohcre  he  will,  he  cannot  fail  to  find  matter  fur  profit  and  delight, 
which,  for  the  most  part,  too,  repeated  perusals  will  only  serve  to  make  him  enjoy  the  more. 
We  have  indeed  infinite  riches  in  a  little  room.  No  one,  who  has  a  taste  for  literature, 
should  allow  himself,  for  a  trifling  consideration,  to  be  without  a  work  which  throws  so 
much  light  upon  the  progress  of  the  English  language.  The  selections  are  gems  —  a  mass 
of  valuable  information  in  a  condensed  and  elegant  form. 

EXTRACTS  FROM  COMMENDATORY  NOTICES. 

From  W.  H.  Prescott,  Author  of Ferdinand  and  Isabella."  "The  plan  of  the  work 
is" very  judicious.  *  *  It  will  put  the  reader  in  the  proper  point  of  vie  w,  for  survey- 
ing the  whole  ground  over  which  he  is  travelling.  *  *  Such  readers  cannot  fail  to 
profit  largely  by  the  labors  of  the  critic  who  has  the  talent  and  taste  to  separate  what 
is  really  beautiful  and  worthy  of  their  study  from  what  is  superfluous. " 

"  I  concur  in  the  foregoing  opinion  of  Mr.  Prescott."  —  Edward  Everett. 

"  It  will  be  a  useful  and  popular  work,  indispensable  to  the  library  of  a  student  of 
English  literature."  —  Francis  Wayland. 

"We  hail  with  peculiar  pleasure  the  appearance  of  this  work,  and  more  especially 
its  republication  in  this  country  at  a  price  which  places  it  within  the  reach  of  a  great 
number  of  readers."  —  North  American  Review. 

"  This  is  the  most  valuable  and  magnificent  contribution  to  a  sound  popular  litera- 
ture that  this  century  has  brought  forth.  It  fills  a  place  which  was  before  a  blank, 
Without  it,  English  literature,  to  almost  all  of  our  countrymen,  educated  or  unedu- 
cated, is  an  imperfect,  broken,  disjointed  mass.  Much  that  is  beautiful  —  the  most 
perfect  and  graceful  portions,  undoubtedly  —  was  already  possessed  ;  but  it  was  not 
a  whole.  Eveiy  intelligent  man,  every  inquiring  mind,  every  scholar,  felt  that  the 
foundation  was  missing.  Chambers's  Cyclopaedia  supplies  this  radical  defect.  It  be- 
gins with  the  beginning  ;  and,  step  by  step,  gives  to  every  one  who  has  the  intellect  or 
taste  to  enjoy  it  a  view  of  English  literature  in  all  its  complete,  beautiful,  and  perfect 
proportions." —  Onondaga  Democrat,  N.  Y. 

"  We  hope  that  teachers  will  avail  themselves  of  an  early  opportunity  to  obtain  a 
work  so  well  calculated  to  impart  useful  knowledge,  with  the  pleasures  and  ornaments 
of  the  English  classics.  The  work  will  undoubtedly  find  a  place  in  our  district  and 
other  public  libraries;  yet  it  should  be  the  *  vade  mecum '  of  every  scholar."  — 
Teachers^  Advocate,  Sijracuse,  N.  F. 

"The  work  is  finely  conceived  to  meet  a  popular  want,  is  full  of  literary  instruction, 
and  is  variously  embellished  with  engravings  illustrative  of  English  antiquities,  his- 
tory, and  biography.  Tire  typography  throughout  is  beautiful." — Christian  Reflector , 
Boston. 

"  The  design  has  been  well  executed  by  the  selection  and  concentration  of  some  of 
the  best  productions  of  English  intellect,  from  the  earliest  Anglo-Saxon  writers  down 
to  those  of  the  present  day.  No  one  can  give  a  glance  at  the  work  without  being 
struck  with  its  beauty  and  cheapness."  —  Boston  Courier. 

"  We  should  be  glad  if  any  thing  we  can  say  would  favor  this  design.  The  elegance 
of  the  execution  feasts  the  eye  with  beauty,  and  ihe  whole  is  suited  to  refine  and  ele- 
vate the  taste.  And  we  might  ask,  who  can  fail  to  go  back  to  its  beginning,  and  traco 
his  mother-tongue  from  its  rude  infancy  to  its  present  maturity,  elegance,  and  richness  ?  " 
Christian  Mirror,  Portland. 

•»*  The  Publishers  of  the  AMERICAN  Edition  of  this  valuable  work  desire  to  state  that,  besides  the 
numerous  pictorial  illustrations  in  the  English  Edition,  they  have  greatly  enriched  the  work  by  the  addition 
of  fine  steel  and  mezzotint  en  cravings  of  the  heads  of  Shakspearc,  Addison,  Byron  ;  a  lull  length  portrait 
of  Dr.  Johnson,  and  a  beautiful  scenic  representation  of  Oliver  Goldsmith  and  Dr.  Johnson.  These  impor- 
tant and  elegant  additions,  together  with  superior  paper  and  binding,  must  give  this  a  decided  preference 
ever  all  other  editions. 


FOR  SCHOOL  AND  FAMILY  LIBRARIES. 


CHAMBERS'S  MISCELLANY 

OF  USEFUL  AND  ENTERTAINING  KNOWLEDGE, 

TEN  VOLUMES,  ELEGANTLY  ILLUSTRATED. 


The  design  of  the  Miscellany  is  to  supply  the  increasing  demand  for  useful, 
instructive,  and  entertaining  reading,  and  to  bring  all  the  aids  of  literature  to  bear 
on  the  cultivation  of  the  feelings  and  understanding  of  the  people  —  to  impress  correct 
views  on  important  moral  and  social  questions  —  to  furnish  an  unobtrusive  friend 
and  guide,  a  lively  fireside  companion,  as  far  as  that  object  can  be  attained  through 
the  instrumentality  of  books. 

This  work  is  confidently  commended  to  Teachers,  School  Committees,  and 
all  others  interested  in  the  formation  of  "  School  Libraries,"  as  the  very  best  work 
for  this  purpose.  Its  wide  range  of  subjects,  presented  in  the  most  popular  style, 
makes  it  exceedingly  interesting  and  instructive  to  all  classes.  The  most  flat- 
tering testimonials  from  distinguished  school  teachers  and  others,  expressing  an 
earnest  desire  to  have  it  introduced  into  all  school  libraries,  have  been  received  by 
the  publishers. 

From  George  B.  Emerson,  Esq.,  Chairman  of  the  Book  Committee  of  the  Boston  Schools. 
—  "I  have  examined  with  a  good  deal  of  care  '  Chambers's  Miscellany  of  Useful 
and  Entertaining  Knowledge,'  particularly  with  reference  to  its  suitableness  to 
form  parts  of  a  library  for  young  persons.  It  is,  indeed,  a  library  in  itself,  and  one 
of  great  value,  containing  very  choice  selections  in  history,  biography,  natural 
history,  poetry,  art,  physiology,  elegant  fiction,  and  various  departments  of  science, 
made  with  great  taste  and  judgment,  and  with  the  highest  moral  and  philanthropic 
purpose.  It  would  be  difficult  to  find  any  miscellany  superior  or  even  equal  to  it ; 
it  richly  deserves  the  epithets  '  useful  and  entertaining,'  and  I  would  recommend 
it  very  strongly,  as  extremely  well  adapted  to  form  parts  of  a  library  for  the  young, 
or  of  a  social  or  circulating  library,  in  town  or  country." 

From  the  Rev.  John  O.  Choules,  D.  D.  —  "I  cannot  resist  the  desire  which  I  feel 
to  thank  you  for  the  valuable  service  which  you  have  rendered  to  the  public  by 
placing  this  admirable  work  within  the  reach  of  all  who  have  a  desire  to  obtain 
knowledge.  I  am  not  acquainted  with  any  similar  collection  in  the  English  lan- 
guage that  can  compare  with  it  for  purposes  of  instruction  or  amusement.  I  should 
rejoice  to  see  that  set  of  books  in  every  house  in  our  country.  I  cannot  think  of 
any  method  by  which  a  father  can  more  materially  benefit  his  children  than  by 
surrounding  them  with  good  books  ;  and  if  these  charming  and  attractive  volumes 
can  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  young,  they  will  have  their  tastes  formed  for  good 
leading.  I  shall  labor  to  see  the  Miscellany  circulated  among  my  friends,  and  shall 
lose  no  opportunity  to  commend  it  every  where." 

"  They  contain  an  excellent  selection  of  historical,  scientific,  and  miscellaneous 
articles  in  popular  style,  from  the  best  writers  of  the  language.  The  work  is  ele- 
gantly printed  and  neatly  illustrated,  and  is  sold  very  cheap."  —  Independent  Dem- 
ocrat, Concord,  N.  H. 

"  It  is  just  the  book  to  take  up  at  the  close  of  a  busy  day  ;  and  especially  will  it 
shed  a  new  charm  over  autumn  and  winter  in-door  scenes." — Christ.  World,  Boston. 

"The  information  contained  in  this  work  is  surprisingly  great;  and  for  the  fire- 
side, and  the  young  particularly,  it  cannot  fail  to  prove  a  most  valuable  and  enter- 
taining companion."  —  New  York  Evangelist. 

'  We  are  glad  to  see  an  American  issue  of  this  publication,  and  especially  in  so 
neat  and  convenient  a  form.  It  is  an  admirable  compilation,  distinguished  by  the 
good  taste  which  has  been  shown  in  all  the  publications  of  the  Messrs.  Chambers. 
It  unites  the  useful  and  the  entertaining."  —  New  York  Commercial  Advertiser. 

"  It  is  an  admirable  compilation,  containing  interesting  memoirs  and  historical 
sketches,  which  are  useful,  instructive,  and  entertaining.  Every  head  of  a  family 
should  supply  himself  with  a  copy  for  the  benefit  of  his  children." —  Corning  Journal. 

"  The  enterprising  publishers  deserve  the  thanks  of  every  lover  of  the  beautiful 
and  true,  for  the  cheap  and  tasteful  style  in  which  they  have  spread  this  truly  val- 
uable work  before  the  American  people."  —  People's  Advocate,  Pa. 

"  It  is  filled  with  subjects  of  interest,  intended  for  the  instruction  of  the  youthful 
mind,  such  as  biography,  history,  anecdotes,  natural  philosophy,  &c." — New 
Orleans  Bee. 


l)ctlttabk  Srijool  Books. 


THE    ELEMENTS    OF    MORAL    SCIENCE.   By  Francis 

Wayland,  D.D.  President  of  Brown  University,  and  Professor  of 
Moral  Philosophy.     Fortieth  Thousand.    12mo.  cloth.     Price  $1.25. 

***  This  work  has  been  extensively  and  favorably  reviewed  and  adopted  as  a  class-book 
in  most  of  the  collegiate,  theological,  and  academical  institutions  of  the  country. 

From  Rev.  Wilbur  FisJc,  President  of  the  WMeran  Univeriity. 
ut  have  examined  it  with  great  satisfaction  and  interest.    The  work  was  greatly  needed, 
and  is  well  executed.    Dr.  "Wayland  deserves  the  grateful  acknowledgments  and  liberal 
patronage  of  the  public.   I  need  say  nothing  further  to  express  my  high  estimate  of  the 
work,  than  that  we  shall  immediately  adopt  it  as  a  text-book  in  our  university." 

From  Hon.  James  Kent,  lata  Chancellor  of  New  York. 
**  The  work  has  been  read  by  me  attentively  and  thoroughly,  and  I  think  very  highly  cf 
It    The  author  himself  is  one  of  the  most"  estimable  of  men,  and  I  do  not  know  of  *ny 
ethical  treatise,  in  which  our  duties  to  God  and  to  our  fellow-men  arc  laid  down  with  mn»'e 
precision,  simplicity,  clearness,  energy,  and  truth." 

"  The  work  of  Dr.  "Wayland  has  arisen  gradually  from  the  necessity  of  correcting  the 
false  principles  and  fallacious  reasonings  of  Paley.  It  is  a  radical  mistake,  in  the  ed'jfa- 
tion  of  youth,  to  permit  any  book  to  be  used  by  students  as  a  text-book,  which  contains 
erroneous  doctrines,  especially  when  these  are  fundamental,  and  tend  to  vitiate  the  whole 
system  of  morals.  "We  have  been  greatly  pleased  with  the  method  which  President  "Way- 
land  has  adopted  ;  he  goes  back  to  the  simplest  and  most  fundamental  principles  ;  and,  in 
the  statement  of  his  views,  he  unites  perspicuity  with  conciseness  and  precision.  In  all 
the  author's  leading  fundamental  principles  we  entirely  concur."  —  Biblical  Rex>ository. 

"  This  is  a  new  work  on  morals,  for  academic  use,  and  we  welcome  it  with  much  satis- 
faction. It  is  the  result  of  several  years'  reflection  and  experience  in  teaching,  on  the  part 
of  its  justly  distinguished  author  ;  and  if  it  is  not  perfectly  what  we  could  wish,  yet,  in  the 
most  important  respects,  it  supplies  a  want  which  has  been  extensively  felt.  It  is,  we 
think,  substantially  sound  in  its  fundamental  principles  ;  and  being  comprehensive  and 
elementary  in  its  plan,  and  adapted  to  the  purposes  of  instruction,  it  will  be  gladly  adopted 
by  those  who  have  for  a  long  time  been  dissatisfied  with  the  existing  works  of  Paley." 

The  Literary  and  Theological  Review. 


MORAL  SCIENCE,  ABRIDGED,  by  the  Author,  and  adapted 
to  the  use  of  Schools  and  Academies.  Twenty-fifth  Thousand.  18mo, 
half  cloth.    Price  25  cents. 

The  more  effectually  to  meet  the  desire  expressed  for  a  cheap  edition,  the  present  edition  is  issued 
at  the  reduced  price  of  25  cents  per  copy,  and  it  is  hoped  thereby  to  extend  the  benefit  of  moral  in- 
struction to  all  the  youth  of  our  land.  Teachers  and  all  others  en.jaged  in  the  training  of  youth,  are 
invited  to  examine  this  work. 

"  Dr.  Wayland  has  published  an  abridgment  of  his  work,  for  the  use  of  schools.  Of 
this  step  we  can  hardly  speak  too  highly.  It  is  more  than  time  that  the  study  of  moral 
philosophy  should  be  introduced  into  all  our  institutions  of  education.  "We  are  happy  to 
see  the  way  so  auspiciously  opened  for  such  an  introduction.  It  has  been  not  merely 
abridged,  but  also  re-written.  "We  cannot  but  regard  the  labor  as  well  bestowed."  —  JYorth 
American  Review. 

"  We  speak  that  we  do  know,  when  we  express  our  high  estimate  of  Dr.  Wayland's 
lbility  in  teaching  Moral  Philosophy,  whether  orally  or  by  the  book.  Having  listened  to 
his  instructions,  in  this  interesting  department,  we  can  attest  how  lofty  are  the  principles, 
how  exact  and  severe  the  argumentation,  how  appropriate  and  strong  the  illustrations 
•which  characterize  his  system  and  enforce  it  on  the  mind."  —  The  Christian  Witness. 

"  The  work  of  which  this  volume  is  an  abridgment,  is  well  known  as  one  of  the  best  and 
most  complete  works  on  Moral  Philosophy  extant.  The  author  is  well  known  as  one  <jf 
the  most  profound  scholars  of  the  age.  That  the  study  of  Moral  Science,  a  science  which 
teaches  goodness,  should  be  a  branch  of  education,  not  onlv  in  our  colleges,  but  in  our 
schools  and  academies,  we  believe  will  not  be  denied.  The  abridgment  of  this  work 
seems  to  us  admirably  calculated  for  the  purpose,  and  we  hope  it  will  be  extensively 
applied  to  the  purposes  for  which  it  is  intended."  —  The  Mercantile  Journal. 

"  We  hail  the  abridgment  as  admirably  adapted  to  supply  the  deficiency  which  has  Ion^ 
been  felt  in  common  school  education,  —  the  study  of  moral  obligation.  Let  the  child 
n»r*j  be  taught  the  relations  it  sustains  to  man  and  to  its  Maker,  the  first  acauainting  it 
the  duties  owed  to  society,  the  second  with  the  duties  owed  to  God,  and  who  can 
ioreteil  how  many  a  sad  and  disastrous  overthrow  of  character  will  be  prevented,  and  ho* 
elevated  and  pure  will  be  the  sense  of  integrity  and  virtue  ?  "  —  Evening  Gazette. 


Daluabk  JSdjooi  Books. 


ELEMENTS  OF  POLITICAL  ECONOMY,  By  Francis 
Waylakd,  D.D.,  President  of  Brown  University.  Fifteenth  Thousand. 
12mo.  cloth.    Price  $1.25 

"  His  object  has  been  to  write  a  book,  which  any  one  who  chooses  may  understand.  He 
has,  therefore,  labored  to  express  the  general  principles  in  the  plainest  manner  possible, 
and  to  illustrate  them  by  cases  with  which  every  person  is  familiar.  It  has  been  to  the 
author  a  source  of  regret,  that  the  course  of  discussion  in  the  following  pages,  has,  una* 
voidably,  led  him  over  ground  which  has  frequently  been  the  arena  of  political  contro- 
versy. In  all  such  cases,  lie  has  endeavored  to  state  what  seemed  to  him  to  be  truth, 
without  fear,  favor,  or  affection.  He  is  conscious  to  himself  of  no  bias  towards  any  party 
whatever,  and  ho  thinks  that  he  who  will  read  the  whole  work,  will  be  convinced  that  he 
has  been  influenced  by  none."  —  Exti act  from  the  Preface. 

POLITICAL  ECONOMY,  ABBXDGED,  by  the  Author,  anC. 
adapted  to  the  use  of  Schools  and  Academies.  Seventh  Thousand. 
18mo.  half  morocco.    Price  50  cents. 

***  The  success  which  has  attended  the  abridgment  of  "  The  Elements  of  Moral 
Science"  has  induced  the  author  to  prepare  an  abridgment  of  this  work.  In  this  case, 
as  in  the  other,  the  work  has  been  wholly  re-written,  and  an  attempt  has  been  made  to 
adapt  it  to  the  attainments  of  youth. 

"  The  original  work  of  the  author,  on  Political  Economy,  has  already  been  noticed  oa 
our  pages  ;  and  the  present  abridgment  stands  in  no  need  of  a  recommendation  from  us. 
We  may  be  permitted,  however,  to  say,  that  both  the  rising  and  risen  generations  are 
deeply  indebted  to  Dr.  Wayland,  for  the  skill  and  power  he  has  put  forth  to'bring  a  highly 
important  subject  distinctly  before  them,  within  such  narrow  limits.  Though  'abridged 
for  the  use  of  academies,'  it  deserves  to  be  introduced  into  every  private  family,  and  to  be 
studied  by  every  man  who  has  an  interest  in  the  wealth  and  prosperity  of  has  country.  It 
is  a  subject  little  understood,  even  practically,  by  thousands,  and  still  less  understood 
theoretically.  It  is  to  be  hoped,  this  will  form  a  class-book,  and  be  faithfully  studied  in 
our  academics ;  and  that  it  will  find  its  way  into  every  family  library ;  not  there  to  be 
shut  up  unread,  but  to  afford  rich  material  for  thought  and  discussion  in  the  family 
circle.  It  is  fitted  to  enlarge  the  mind,  to  purify  the  judgment,  to  correct  erroneous 
popular  impressions,  and  assist  every  man  in  forming  opinions  of  public  measures, 
wliich  will  abide  the  test  of  time  and  experience."  —  Boston  Recorder. 

"  An  abridgment  of  this  clear,  common  sense  work,  designed  for  the  use  of  academies 
is  just  published.  "We  rejoice  to  see  such  treatises  spreading  among;  the  people  ;  and  we 
urge  all  who  would  be  intelligent  freemen,  to  read  them."  —  New  York  Transcript. 

"  We  can  say,  with  safety,  that  the  topics  are  well  selected  and  arranged ;  that  the 
author's  name  is  a  guarantee  for  more  than  usual  excelleuce.  We  wish  it  an  extensive 
circulation."  —  Nev;  York  Observer. 

"  It  is  well  adapted  to  high  schools,  and  embraces  the  soundest  system  of  republican 
political  economy  of  any  treatise  extant."  —  Daily  Advocate. 

THOUGHTS  on  the  present  Collegiate  System  in  the  United  States. 
By  Fkancis  Wayland,  D.D.    Price  60  cents. 

"  These  Thoughts  come  from  a  source  entitled  to  a  very  respectful  attention  ;  and  as  the 
author  goes  over  the  whole  ground  of  collegiate  education,  criticising  freely  all  the  arrange- 
ments in  every  department  and  in  all  their  bearings,  the  book  is  very  full  of  matter.  We 
hope  it  will  prove  the  beginning  of  a  thorough  discussion." 

PALE Y'  S  NATURAL  THEOLOGY,  Illustrated  by  forty  plates, 
and  Selections  from  the  notes  of  Dr.  Paxton,  with  additional  Notes, 
original  and  selected,  for  this  edition ;  with  a  vocabulary  of  Scientific 
Terms.    Edited  by  John  Ware,  M.D.  12mo.  sheep.  Price  $1.25. 

"  The  work  before  us  i3  one  which  deserves  rather  to  be  studied  than  merely  read. 
Indeed,  without  diligent  attention  and  study,  neither  the  excellences  of  it  can  be  fully  dis- 
covered, nor  its  advantages  realized.  It  is,  therefore,  gratifying  to  find  it  introduced,  as  a 
text-book,  into  the  colleges  and  literary  institutions  of  our  country.  The  edition  before  ua 
is  superior  to  any  we  have  seen,  and,  we  believe,  superior  to  any  that  has  yet  been  pub- 
lished." —  Spirit  of  the  Pilgrims. 

"  Perhaps  no  one  of  our  author's  works  gives  greater  satisfaction  to  all  classes  of  readers, 
the  young  and  the  old,  the  ignorant  and  the  enlightened.  Indeed,  we  recollect  no  book  in 
which  the  arguments  for  the  existence  and  attributes  of  the  Supreme  Being,  to  be  drawn 
from  his  works  are  exhibited  in  a  manner  more  attractive  and  more  convincing." 

Christian  Examiner. 


liiHIliniSi 


lit  •SEISII 


